Ante is a low-level functional language for exploring refinement types, lifetime inference, and other fun features. Here's a quick taste:
type Person = name: string, job: ref string
// Infer that the data referenced via `&` should not be freed inside this function
make_person name =
Person name &"programmer"
// bob is only used at this scope, so it can be safely freed afterward
bob = make_person "bob"
// unlike ownership systems, aliasing is allowed with lifetime inference
bob_twin = bob
assert (bob.name == bob_twin.name)In general, ante is low-level (no GC, values aren't boxed by default) while also trying to be as readable as possible by encouraging high-level approaches that can be optimized with low-level details later on.
See the website, language tour, and roadmap for more information.
The compiler is still in a rather early state so any contributors are greatly welcome. Feel free to contribute to either any known issues/improvements (some are listed in the "Quick Tasks" list below) or any standard library functions you think may be useful.
Each file in the codebase is prefixed with a module comment explaining the purpose of
the file and any algorithms used. src/main.rs is a good place to start reading.
Make sure any PRs pass the tests in the examples directory. These tests have commands
in them which the goldentests library uses
to run the ante compiler and check its output for each file against the expected output
contained within comments of that file.
Quick Tasks to contribute to
The best place to follow ante's development is in the official discord: https://discord.gg/BN97fKnEH2. There is also the mostly inactive subreddit at /r/ante which is mainly used for questions about the language rather than development updates. You can also feel free to file issues or ask questions on this repository.
Ante currently optionally requires llvm 13.0 while building. If you already have this installed with
sources, you may be fine building with cargo install --path . alone. If cargo complains
about not finding any suitable llvm version, you can either choose to build ante without
the llvm backend via cargo install --path . --no-default-features or you can build llvm from
source via CMake as covered in the next sections.
The easiest method to install llvm would be through your package manager, making sure to install any -dev packages
if they are available for your distro. Once installed, make sure to set the LLVM_SYS_130_PREFIX to the path llvm
was installed to:
$ LLVM_SYS_130_PREFIX=$(llvm-config --obj-root)If your distro ships a version other than llvm 13.0 you can try changing the inkwell dependency Ante's Cargo.toml. This dependency controls the llvm version expected and by default it is:
inkwell = { git = "https://github.com/TheDan64/inkwell", branch = "master", features = ["llvm13-0"], optional = true }Change the quoted llvm portion to "llvm-12-0" for example to build with llvm 12.0. Also don't forget that after changing
this version the environment variable's name will be different, using llvm 12.0 for example it would be LLVM_SYS_120_PREFIX.
If this method does not work you will have to try building llvm from source via cmake. See the CMake section below.
Alternatively, you can build with only cranelift as a backend via cargo install --path . --no-default-features.
Ante is available in the unstable branch of the nixpkgs repository.
The project itself provides build instructions for the Nix package manager. Those can be used for the most recent version of the compiler, or for working on it.
To enter the development environment, run either nix-shell or nix develop depending on whether you are using nix
with flakes and nix command enabled or not.
Then you can build and run the project with cargo as described at the top of this section.
Beyond that, the project will also build with nix-build / nix build, meaning you can install it on your system using
the provided overlay or play around with the compiler via nix shell github:jfecher/ante.
Note: LLVM is notoriously difficult to build on windows. If you're a windows user who has tried
the following and still cannot build llvm, I highly recommend trying out ante without the llvm
backend via cargo install --path . --no-default-features. Since the llvm binaries do not ship
with the appropriate library files on windows, you will have to build from source via CMake
If the above steps don't work for you, you can try building llvm from source with cmake. If you're on windows, this requires you to have Visual Studio 2017 or later installed already.
$ git clone https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project --branch=release/13.x
$ mkdir llvm-build
$ cd llvm-build
$ cmake ../llvm-project/llvm
At this point, cmake may show an error that it failed to find z3 or the windows SDK, in which case you may need to install them. For the windows SDK, you can install it via the Visual Studio Installer (under Modify -> Individual Components). I used version 10.0.17763.0, though it is likely newer versions will work as well. Rerun the last cmake command to test that everything is installed right. Once this is done, move on to compiling llvm and ante:
$ cmake --build .
$ cmake --build . --target install
$ cd ..
$ set LLVM_SYS_130_PREFIX=/absolute/path/to/llvm-build
$ cargo build