Lesma

Lesma is a compiled, statically typed, imperative, and object-oriented programming language with a focus on expressiveness, elegance, and simplicity without sacrificing performance.

📝 Features

• 🚀 Fast Compilation: compiling at a rate of ≈230k loc/s, because waiting for code to compile is a thing of the past
• ⚡ Blazing Fast Execution: because it should be, it's as fast as C, using LLVM's state-of-the-art optimizations, but it won't ever oblige you to make an extra effort just for the sake of performance
• 🔬 Statically Typed: because IDE completion is like heaven, while unknown behaviour and runtime exceptions are like hell
• 🧑‍🎨 Simple: because the code should be easily readable, and it shouldn't make you guess what it does or take long to learn

✍️ Example

📖 Documentation

• Official Documentation
• Examples

Installation

Every Lesma release contains archives with the binary and standard library which you can grab. Alternatively, you can use the installer script to do all the work for you. The get-lesma.sh script downloads and installs the latest release.

Run the following in your terminal:

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alinalihassan/Lesma/main/scripts/get-lesma.sh)"

🔧 Build

In order to build Lesma, you need Clang, LLVM (17+), and Ninja installed. It's currently only supported on Linux and macOS. For a more comprehensive guide, and more information on how to install the prerequisites, read the documentation on Getting Started

Prerequisites

Required:

• CMake 3.24+
• Ninja
• Clang
• LLVM 17+ (with Clang)

vcpkg (submodule)

vcpkg is included as a git submodule for dependency management. After cloning Lesma, init and bootstrap it:

git submodule update --init --recursive
cd vcpkg
./bootstrap-vcpkg.sh  # On Linux/macOS
cd ..

Installing LLVM

Option 1: Homebrew (macOS)

brew install llvm
export LLVM_DIR=$(brew --prefix llvm)/lib/cmake/llvm
export Clang_DIR=$(brew --prefix llvm)/lib/cmake/clang

Option 2: Package Manager (Linux)

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install llvm-dev clang libclang-dev

# Or for a specific version (e.g., LLVM 17)
sudo apt-get install llvm-17-dev clang-17 libclang-17-dev

Option 3: Build LLVM via vcpkg (Any platform)

This option builds LLVM from source using vcpkg. It takes significant time (~1-2 hours) but works on any platform.

# Configure with LLVM build enabled
cmake . -Bbuild -DLESMA_BUILD_LLVM=ON -G Ninja
cmake --build build

Building Lesma

1. Clone the repository and init the vcpkg submodule

   git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/alinalihassan/Lesma
   cd Lesma

   If you already cloned without --recurse-submodules, run git submodule update --init --recursive and bootstrap vcpkg (see above).

2. Run CMake to configure and build

   # Using presets (recommended)
   cmake --preset Debug
   cmake --build --preset Debug
   
   # Or manually
   cmake . -Bbuild -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE="$(pwd)/vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake" -G Ninja
   cmake --build build

3. Run tests (optional)

   cd build/Debug  # or build/Release
   ctest --output-on-failure

💬 Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue to discuss your proposal and what you'd like to change.

• To keep updated with releases, consider starring the project.
• Check the code of conduct and contributing guidelines

📎 License

This software is licensed under the MIT © Alin Ali Hassan.