Sun Programming Language

Sun is an experimental programming language exploring Rust-style memory safety while retaining familiar concepts such as classes and interfaces.

Design Goals

• Fast: Systems-level performance without runtime overhead
• Designed For AI: NumPy-like N-D matrices and linear algebra provided in the standard library
• Safety Critical: Suitable for safety-critical embedded applications, particularly autonomous robotics
• Memory safe: No undefined behavior via Rust-style borrow checking
• Readable: Straightforward for humans (and AIs!) to read and understand
• Unambiguous: No alternative syntaxes. No hidden control flow. No hidden memory allocation. No macros

Hello World

Here's a minimal hello-world program:

// hello.sun
import "stdlib.moon";
using sun;

function main() {
  println("Hello, Sun!");
}

Compile and run:

sun --compile -o hello hello.sun
./hello
Hello, Sun!

Installation

Ubuntu (Debian Package)

Download and install the latest dev build:

curl -LO https://github.com/namo-robotics/sun/releases/download/dev/sun_0.dev_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i sun_0.dev_amd64.deb

To update, download and install the new package.

Uninstalling

To uninstall the Debian package:

sudo dpkg -r sun

Build from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/namo-robotics/sun.git
cd sun
./build.sh

Quick Start

Create a Sun program.

// hello.sun
import "stdlib.moon";
using sun;

function main() i32 {
    println("Hello, Sun!");
    return 0;
}

JIT Execution

Set SUN_PATH for imports.

export SUN_PATH=`pwd`/build

ubuntu@5b8bc57b626b:/workspaces/sun$ sun hello.sun
Hello, Sun!

Compile to native executable

ubuntu@5b8bc57b626b:/workspaces/sun$ sun --compile -o hello hello.sun
Compiling: hello.sun -> hello
Successfully compiled to: hello
ubuntu@5b8bc57b626b:/workspaces/sun$ ./hello 
Hello, Sun!

Inspect generated LLVM IR

ubuntu@5b8bc57b626b:/workspaces/sun$ sun --emit-ir hello.sun 
; LLVM IR (user-defined only):
@str = private unnamed_addr constant [12 x i8] c"Hello, Sun!\00", align 1
define void @main() {
entry:
  call void @sun_println(%static_ptr_struct.20 { ptr @str, i64 11 })
  ret void
}
 
Hello, Sun!

Moons

Sun programs can import precompiled library bundles called moons (.moon files). Moons contain compiled code and type information, enabling fast compilation and reliable distribution of libraries.

import "stdlib.moon";

function main() i32 {
    var allocator = make_heap_allocator();
    var m = Matrix<i32>(allocator, [3, 3]);
    m[1, 1] = 42;
    return m[1, 1];
}

Sun is designed to work with Moon, a safety-critical package manager (coming soon) that will provide:

• Exact matching: Dependencies are pinned to the exact hash of the binary and compiler version — every change is a breaking change
• Verified builds: Reproducible compilation with cryptographic verification
• Trusted sources: Security auditing based on verified, trustable package sources
• Static bundling: No dynamic linkage — moons and binaries include all dependencies in a single file

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