stone¶

stone is a small, statically checked language with Python-like syntax. One binary both interprets a program and compiles it to a native x86-64 executable, and the two always agree on what a program prints.

def fib(n);
    if n < 2;
        ret n
    ret fib(n - 1) + fib(n - 2)

for i in range(10);
    print(fib(i))

stone run fib.st                # interpret it right away
stone build fib.st -o fib && ./fib   # or compile it to a native executable

Why stone¶

Fewer Shift presses. Blocks open with ; instead of :, functions return with ret, and loops skip ahead with cont. The constants are true, false, and none, all lowercase.

Two backends, one behavior. stone run walks the syntax tree, and stone build lowers it to an IR, allocates registers, and emits assembly. Every program in the test suite, including every example in this documentation, runs through both and must print the same thing, down to float formatting and runtime error messages.

Errors before running. A type checker infers every type, so 1 + "a", mixing ints and floats, or reading a variable that might not be assigned yet is reported with its line and column before anything runs.

Editor support. The stone-lsp language server, packaged as a VS Code extension, shows errors as you type, inferred types on hover, go to definition, references, rename, and completion.

Getting started