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This has a couple of pros: - It simplifies some code that used to have to check whether a called thing is a bare function or a closure. - It's faster because we don't need to do the above checks every time something is called. - It lets us more precisely type some fields that used to be Obj* because they could hold an ObjClosure* or ObjFn*. The cost is that we allocate a closure every time a function is declared, even if it has no upvalues. Since functions are called way more often than they are declared, this is still a net win. On my Mac laptop: api_call - wren 0.06s 0.0020 104.73% api_foreign_method - wren 0.32s 0.0040 101.89% binary_trees - wren 0.23s 0.0057 98.82% binary_trees_gc - wren 0.79s 0.0170 98.46% delta_blue - wren 0.13s 0.0031 101.36% fib - wren 0.23s 0.0038 103.15% fibers - wren 0.04s 0.0017 98.97% for - wren 0.08s 0.0017 107.81% method_call - wren 0.12s 0.0024 98.60% map_numeric - wren 0.31s 0.0052 103.93% map_string - wren 0.11s 0.0113 97.97% string_equals - wren 0.20s 0.0023 107.75%
Wren is a small, fast, class-based concurrent scripting language
Think Smalltalk in a Lua-sized package with a dash of Erlang and wrapped up in a familiar, modern syntax.
System.print("Hello, world!")
class Wren {
flyTo(city) {
System.print("Flying to %(city)")
}
}
var adjectives = Fiber.new {
["small", "clean", "fast"].each {|word| Fiber.yield(word) }
}
while (!adjectives.isDone) System.print(adjectives.call())
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Wren is small. The VM implementation is under 4,000 semicolons. You can skim the whole thing in an afternoon. It's small, but not dense. It is readable and lovingly-commented.
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Wren is fast. A fast single-pass compiler to tight bytecode, and a compact object representation help Wren compete with other dynamic languages.
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Wren is class-based. There are lots of scripting languages out there, but many have unusual or non-existent object models. Wren places classes front and center.
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Wren is concurrent. Lightweight fibers are core to the execution model and let you organize your program into an army of communicating coroutines.
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Wren is a scripting language. Wren is intended for embedding in applications. It has no dependencies, a small standard library, and an easy-to-use C API. It compiles cleanly as C99, C++98 or anything later.
If you like the sound of this, let's get started. You can even try it in your browser! Excited? Well, come on and get involved!
