❄️ Snow Programming Language

Welcome to Snow - an experimental functional programming language that combines Go-inspired tooling with OCaml-style functional programming.

⚠️ Status: Snow is currently in early development. Many features are experimental or not yet implemented.

What is Snow?

Snow aims to provide Go-like ecosystem productivity with functional programming expressiveness and safety. The language is being developed as a research project to explore modern compiler design and functional language features.

Planned Features

• Type & Null Safety: Option/Result types for safer error handling
• Type Inference: Hindley-Milner style type inference
• Expression-Based: Functional programming with expression-oriented syntax
• LLVM Backend: Native code generation through LLVM
• Go-Style Tooling: Integrated build system and package management
• Functional Paradigms: Immutable data structures and pattern matching
• Standard Library: https://github.com/nao1215/snow

Quick Start 🏁

Installation

# Build the Snow toolchain
dune build

# Add to your shell profile
export PATH=$PATH:$(pwd)/_build/default/compiler/bin/snow

Your First Snow Program

Create a hello.sw file:

package main

// Snow loves expressions and safety!
let main(): unit = {
	let greeting = "Hello, Snow! ❄️" in
	println(greeting)
}

Run it:

snow run hello.sw

The Snow Toolchain 🔧

Current implementation status of Snow toolchain commands:

Command	Status	Description
snow build	✅ Working	Compile Snow programs to native executables
snow run	✅ Working	Compile and run immediately
snow fmt	✅ Working	Format code with official style
snow mod init	✅ Working	Initialize a new Snow module
snow mod tidy	🚧 Partial	Manage dependencies (basic implementation, missing network validation)
snow install	✅ Working	Install tools from remote repositories
snow test	🚧 Planned	Run test suite
snow repl	🚧 Planned	Interactive REPL

Examples

# Start a new project
snow mod init github.com/yourname/awesome-project

# Install a Snow-based tool from GitHub
snow install github.com/nao1215/snow/sample/hello

# Build with optimizations (basic LLVM-level optimizations)
snow build -O2 -o myapp src/main.sw

# Format all Snow files in your project
snow fmt **/*.sw

Package Management 📦

Snow uses a Go-inspired package system with snow.mod files and GitHub-based dependencies:

# Snow module file
# This file describes the module and its dependencies

module: "github.com/nao1215/snow"
version: "v0.1.0"
license: MIT

# Dependencies (will be populated by 'snow mod tidy')
dependencies: {}

# Development dependencies (for testing, etc.)
dev-dependencies: {}

# Module metadata
metadata:
  min-snow-version: "0.1.0"
  build-system: "snow"

Current Language Features

Implemented:

• Basic type system with explicit integer types (i8, u8, i32, etc.)
• Lexical analysis and parsing
• Type inference using Hindley-Milner algorithm
• LLVM code generation for core language constructs
• Pattern matching for basic types
• Function definitions and calls

In Development:

• Advanced pattern matching
• Module system and imports
• Standard library
• Error handling with Result types

Documentation 📖

• Language Specification: For complete language details, see doc/en/language_spec/spec.md

Development 🛠️

Want to contribute? Awesome! Here's how to get started:

# Clone and build
git clone https://github.com/nao1215/snow-toolchain.git
cd snow-toolchain
dune build

# Run the test suite
dune runtest

# Try the compiler
dune exec snow -- --help

Project Structure

• common/lib/ - Core compiler components (lexer, parser, typechecker, codegen)
• compiler/bin/snow/ - The main Snow toolchain CLI
• compiler/test/ - Comprehensive test suite (50+ tests!)
• doc/ - Language documentation in English and Japanese

Project Goals

This project explores:

• Safe functional programming language design
• Modern compiler implementation techniques
• Integration of type inference with practical tooling
• LLVM backend code generation

The aim is to research how functional programming concepts can be made more accessible through familiar tooling patterns.

Community 🤝

• Issues & Discussion: GitHub Issues
• Contributions: We welcome PRs! Please check our contribution guidelines
• Support: https://github.com/sponsors/nao1215

License 📄

MIT License

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Interested in functional language research?

Check out the language specification for implementation details, or try dune exec snow -- --help to explore the current toolchain.