Zith

Status: Early development. Core types, functions, control flow, and LLVM codegen work. Several features listed below are designed and parsed but not yet semantically active. See the Implementation Status table for the exact picture.

A statically typed, compiled, general-purpose language. Zith proves memory safety at compile time through Node Resource Analysis (NRA) — no garbage collector, no borrow checker, no runtime overhead. The syntax stays clean; the compiler does the hard work.

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What Makes Zith Different

NRA tracks ownership, lending, and aliasing through five qualifiers — lend, view, unique, share, and belong — without requiring lifetime annotations. Beyond memory safety, Zith ships a large toolbox for domain-specific work: custom operators (word), scoped DSLs (context), structured goto (flow fn / marker / dock), and first-class compile-time computation.

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Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/GalaxyHaze/Zith.git
cd Zith
cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build -j
./build/zithc --help

Requires CMake 3.15+ and a C++23 compiler (GCC 13+, Clang 16+, or MSVC 19.35+). LLVM 18+ is optional — without it, codegen is disabled but check and HIR emission still work.

Hello, World: ( is a place holder, until we can formalize macros correctly)

extern fn puts(msg: *char)

fn main() {
    puts("Hello, World!");
}

then the canonical way would be:

from std/io/console

fn main() {
    @println("Hello, World!");
}

./build/zithc run examples/hello-world.zith

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Language Overview

Type System

• Primitives: u8-u128, i8-i128, f32, f64, bool, char, void
• Composite: struct, component (POD), enum (C-style, struct-backed, ADT), union (tagged & C-union hatch escape)
• Generics, type aliases, and pattern matching with when

Memory Model (NRA)

• lend — exclusive mutable borrow for the call
• view — read-only borrow
• unique — sole owner; value is consumed on assignment
• share — reference-counted, safe across scopes
• belong — declares that a field owns its pointee

Functions

• fn — regular function
• const fn — resolved entirely at compile time
• flow fn — structured goto with marker / dock / jump (no spaghetti, compiler-verified)
• async fn / yield — suspend/resume (parsed; semantic layer in progress)
• raw fn — opt out of NRA for C-interop

Control Flow

• if / when (pattern matching) / for
• -> chain-flow operator for left-to-right pipelines

Error Handling

• ?T optional, T! result — zero-cost, return-based
• or fallback chains, fail blocks, with / catch, throw
• must (debug panic) / raw (always unchecked)

Extensibility (Experimental)

• word — define custom infix, prefix, or suffix operators
• context — bundle words and macros into an activatable DSL scope
• use — bring a context or word into scope

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Implementation Status

Feature	Status	Notes
Lexer / parser	Working	Full grammar including experimental syntax
Formatter (zithc fmt)	Working	Preserves all AST nodes including experimental
Type checking	Working	Structs, enums, generics, function calls
LLVM codegen	Working	x86-64 and WebAssembly targets
fn, const fn, flow fn	Working
struct, enum, union, component	Working
Primitive arithmetic and comparisons	Working	Including unsigned ops
if / when / for	Working
-> chain operator	Working
Module imports (import, from, export)	Working
alias, type	Working
C interop (extern fn, import ".h")	Working
Field access (.field)	Semantic warning	Parses, HIR lowering not yet complete
Index access (a[i])	Semantic warning	Parses, HIR lowering not yet complete
is / as	Blocked (E2010)	Parsed; sema rejects before HIR
? / ! propagation / fallback	Blocked (E2010)	Parsed; sema rejects before HIR
word / context / use	Blocked (E2010)	Parsed; sema rejects before HIR
macro / @macro calls	Semantic warning	Parses; expansion not implemented
async fn / yield / spawn / await	Spec only	No compiler support yet
NRA pass	Spec only	Pipeline stub exists; analysis not implemented
comptime blocks	Spec only	No evaluation yet
zithc test / zithc repl / zithc deps	Stub	Returns "not implemented"

E2010 (UnsupportedSyntax): the compiler accepts these constructs syntactically but emits a hard semantic error if they appear in code. They will be unlocked as their HIR representation and type semantics are fully defined.

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CLI Reference

Command	Description	Status
zithc build	Compile to native binary	Working
zithc run	Compile and execute	Working
zithc check	Type-check without emitting	Working
zithc fmt	Format source files	Working
zithc create <name>	Scaffold a new project	Working
zithc clean	Remove build artifacts	Working
zithc execute <file>	Run a pre-compiled binary	Working
zithc test	Run project tests	Stub
zithc repl	Interactive REPL	Stub
zithc deps	Dependency management	Stub

Useful flags: --emit-ast, --emit-hir, --emit-ir, --emit-asm, -m release, --include <stdlib-path>

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Compilation Pipeline

Source -> Lex -> Scan -> Import -> Resolve -> TypeCheck -> Solve -> NRA -> HIR -> Codegen -> Cache

Stage	Description
Lex	Tokenize source
Scan	Register top-level declarations
Import	Resolve module imports
Resolve	Bind names to symbols
TypeCheck	Infer and check types (sema)
Solve	Generic instantiation, monomorphization
NRA	Node Resource Analysis — ownership pass (stub)
HIR	Lower typed AST to High-level IR
Codegen	Emit LLVM IR -> native or WASM binary

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Install

Build from source (recommended until stable release):

git clone https://github.com/GalaxyHaze/Zith.git
cd Zith
cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build -j

Scoop (Windows):

scoop bucket add zithc https://github.com/GalaxyHaze/Zith.git
scoop install zithc

Homebrew (macOS/Linux):

brew tap galaxyhaze/zithc
brew install zithc

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Documentation

Document	Purpose
Language Spec	Overview, design goals, quick reference, appendix
Full Spec	All chapters in one file
CHANGELOG	What changed and what is planned
CONTRIBUTING	Build instructions, code style, pipeline overview

Spec Chapters

#	Topic	File
1	Overview & Design Philosophy	Zith-spec.md
2	Module System	02-module-system.md
3	Type System	03-type-system.md
4	Traits, Interfaces & Capabilities	04-traits-interfaces.md
5	Functions	05-functions.md
6	Mutability & Bindings	06-mutability-bindings.md
7	Memory Model (NRA)	07-memory-model.md
8	Error Handling	08-error-handling.md
9	Control Flow	09-control-flow.md
10	Concurrency	10-concurrency.md
11	Comptime	11-comptime.md
12	Assets	12-assets.md
13	Raw & Unsafe	13-raw-unsafe.md
14	Polymorphism	14-polymorphism.md
15	Macros	15-macros.md
16	Words (Custom Operators)	16-words.md
17	Contexts	17-contexts.md
18	C Interop	18-c-interop.md
19	Project Configuration	19-project-config.md
20	Standard Library	20-standard-library.md
21	Best Practices	21-best-practices.md

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for build instructions and code style.

• Discord — progress updates and collaboration
• Issue Tracker
• Discussions

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License

MIT License