go--

The go-- compiler targets a significant subset of the Go programming language. Validates Go programs and produces native executables.

You can find the first version of this compiler (this is the third) here: https://github.com/obround/go.rs.

Build and Usage

Requirements

• Rust toolchain (latest)
• Clang
• LLVM 21
• Make
• Bohem GC

Building

Clone the repository and run make:

git clone https://github.com/obround/go--
cd go--
make

This will create an executable bin/go--.

Running

To compile and run a Go source file:

/bin/go-- examples/mandelbrot.go
./examples/mandelbrot.go

You can also inspect the generated LLVM IR using the --emit-llvm option.

Examples

Mandelbrot

Ray Tracer

/bin/go-- examples/rayTracer.go
./examples/rayTracer > image.ppm

Donut.c & Endoh's Fluid Simulation

bin/go-- examples/donut.go
bin/go-- examples/fluidSim.go

./examples/donut
./examples/fluidSim

Language Support

The go-- compiler supports a respectable subset of Go programs with many constructs: structs, methods, slices, arrays, maps, etc.

However, it notably does not support (yet): Interfaces, packages, concurrency, multi-file code, and some syntactic sugars

How it works

flowchart LR
    A[Source .go] --> C(Lexer / Parser)
    C --> D[AST]
    D --> E(Semantic Check / Lowering)
    E --> F[Go-- IR]
    F --> G(LLVM Codegen)
    G --> H[Native Binary]

Loading

I am planning on rewriting the analysis phase to separate semantic checking and lowering -- this should make for significantly cleaner code. I also plan to push some of my local tests for both the semantic checking and code generation phases.

License

MIT