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Introduction

Sydrogen is a statically typed systems programming language that compiles to native machine code.

Sydrogen source files use the .anvil extension. If you drop one on the floor, it will not make a sound.

The compiler is Furnace.

Status: Sydrogen Alpha-7
Compiler: Furnace
Implementation: Rust
Parser: pest
Code generation: Direct x86-64 path or Cranelift
Output: ELF64/PE32+ executable or native object code

What Sydrogen Is

Sydrogen is a statically typed programming language whose compiled programs do not require a virtual machine or interpreter at runtime. Furnace either writes an ELF64 Linux or PE32+ Windows executable directly, or uses the system linker for the Cranelift path.

What Furnace Is

Furnace is the name of the Sydrogen compiler. The current generation is written in Rust and uses pest for parsing, a direct x86-64 code path and Cranelift for code generation, Rayon for parallel semantic analysis, and cc for the typed path's linking step.

Current Version

This documentation describes Alpha-7 of Sydrogen and the corresponding release of Furnace.

Source Files

Sydrogen source files use the .anvil extension. Furnace checks that input files use this extension before processing them.

Compiler Pipeline

flowchart LR
    A(Sydrogen source) --> B(pest)
    B --> C(AST)
    C --> D(Semantic analysis)
    D --> E(Direct native path or Cranelift path)
    E --> F(Executable)

Furnace is divided into several stages:

  • pest parses the source into an AST.
  • Semantic analysis validates the AST and rejects invalid programs.
  • The direct native path writes x86-64 instructions and an ELF64 or PE32+ executable.
  • Cranelift generates a native object file for programs that need the typed path.
  • cc (the system C compiler) links that object file into an executable.

Alpha-7 uses:

  • Rust for the compiler
  • pest for parsing
  • Cranelift for code generation
  • Rayon for parallel semantic analysis
  • cc for linking

How to Read This Book

If you are new to Sydrogen, start with Hello World and Program Structure.

The Language section describes individual language features.

The Compiler section describes how Furnace is organized.

The Reference sections provide quick lookup tables.

The Project Status section explains what is currently supported, what is not, and what is planned.

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