Introduction

It will be Smalltalk like language, but statically typed. Niva targets JVM, and provides easy way to call any Java\Kotlin code.
On an imaginary graph of complexity, I would put it here:
Go < Niva < Java < Kotlin < Scala

Niva is strongly inspired by the forgotten Smalltalk language

Niva combines some OOP and functional properties

OOP

There are no functions, everything is method, in other words there is always a receiver ("Hello" print instead of print("Hello"))

Functional

There are no inheritance, interfaces, abstract classes. Instead, tagged unions are heavily utilized.
This greatly reduces dynamism, the code is easier to understand because you always know which specific method will be called.
There are no if\while\do while, everything is a message send, like in Smalltalk

Syntax without much explanation

Here are syntax examples to give you a general impression. Everything will be discussed in detail below.

// declare type with 2 fields
type Person name: String age: Int
person = Person name: "Alice" age: 24 // instantiate

person name echo        // get 
person name: "new name" // set

// unary method declaration
Person hi = "Hi! my name is $name" echo
person hi // unary call

// method with args
Person foo::Int bar::Int = [
    age + foo + bar |> echo // same as
    (age + foo + bar) echo 
]
person foo: 1 bar: 2 // 27 printed

union Shape =
| Rectangle width: Int height: Int
| Circle    radius: Int

constructor Float PI = 3.14
Float PI // constructor call

Last modified: 05 July 2024