AbyssLang

The first systems programming language designed and built entirely in Uzbekistan. Al-Khwarizmi, born in Khiva, gave the world the algorithm. From the same soil, the next generation is building the machines that run them.

A statically-typed systems language with manual memory control, native compilation, and a built-in memory profiler. ~5,000 lines of pure C11. Zero external dependencies.

• License: Apache 2.0
• Author: Abrorbek Patidinov — Amity University Tashkent
• Current version: Bytecode v13 · 29/29 regression tests green (VM + Native)

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🌌 Overview

AbyssLang is built on a dual-engine architecture:

1. Native AOT Mode — Transpiles to C, compiles with GCC -O3 -flto -march=native, produces a standalone ELF binary. Runs at the speed of silicon.
2. Resonance VM Mode — Stack-based virtual machine with computed-goto dispatch, featuring the Abyss Eye — a revolutionary built-in memory profiler that tags allocations with their source-level variable names at the opcode level, without debug symbols.

AbyssLang is 100% sovereign. The compiler is pure C11 — no Flex, no Bison, no LLVM. The standard library is written entirely in AbyssLang itself.

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🔥 Why AbyssLang

• ⚡ Blazing fast. 6.75× faster than Python on verified real-world workloads (Mandelbrot, packet scanning, prime sieve).
• 👁️ The Abyss Eye HUD — call abyss_eye(); anywhere to summon a live terminal HUD. Visualizes active stack/heap memory, tracks allocation lifecycles (leak analysis), displays hex dumps, and shows the variable name you wrote in source code — propagated through a dedicated OP_TAG_ALLOC opcode.
• 🧠 Explicit memory control. Manual heap (new), auto-freeing stack (stack), manual free(). Zero garbage collection pauses.
• 🛡️ Static type checking with Option B semantics. Widening implicit, narrowing forbidden. Catches bugs at compile time without forcing explicit casts everywhere.
• 🛠️ Modern syntax. struct, enum, dynamic interface dispatch, tuple returns (including through interfaces), short-circuit &&/||, bitwise ops, try/catch/throw, string + number concatenation, forward references with mutual recursion.
• 📦 Self-hosted standard library. std.math, std.time, std.io, std.array — written in pure AbyssLang. No external code.

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📊 Benchmarks (v13, verified)

Identical algorithms, identical hardware (AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, Arch Linux).

Benchmark	AbyssLang Native	Python 3	Speedup
Mandelbrot 800×600 (33.5M iter)	0.564 s	4.369 s	7.74×
Packet Signature Scanner (500K)	0.046 s	0.369 s	8.02×
Prime Sieve (10 M)	0.310 s	1.476 s	4.76×
Total showcase runtime	0.92 s	6.21 s	6.75×

Reproducible from showcase_real.al and showcase_equivalent.py in the repo.

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🧠 Architecture

The Compiler (abyssc)

Two-pass compiler that reads .al source and emits either bytecode (.aby) or transpiled C:

• Pass 1 — Signature scan: Collects all top-level declarations (functions with their argument types, structs, enums, interfaces, globals). No bytecode emitted.
• Pass 2 — Bytecode emission: Re-walks with full symbol knowledge. Forward function references resolved via patch table. Argument types checked at every call site.

Properties:

• Lexer: Handwritten. File-context stack for multi-file imports (idempotent). Supports decimal/hex integer literals, float literals, character literals with full escape sequences, and both line (//) and block (/* */) comments.
• Parser: Recursive descent, 12-level precedence climbing. No AST — bytecode emitted directly.
• Type checker: Integrated. Every assignment, return, and call-site argument runs through check_assign_compat() with Option B semantics.

The Virtual Machine (abyss_vm)

Stack-based with computed-goto dispatch:

• Stack: 1 MiB value stack (1,048,576 × 64-bit slots)
• Call stack: 4,096 frames
• Exception stack: 256 frames
• Opcodes: 60+ instructions

Stack overflow, call-stack overflow, and bytecode version mismatches are all caught cleanly — never segfault.

Native AOT Compiler

Bytecode-to-C transpiler producing standalone native binaries:

• Each opcode → equivalent C statement
• GCC -O3 -flto=auto -march=native
• Value union { int64_t i; double f; void *p; } — eliminates memcpy overhead
• Computed-goto jump table preserved
• Output: standalone ELF, no runtime dependencies

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🛠 Build Instructions

Requirements:

• GCC or Clang
• GNU Make

Build the toolchain:

make clean && make

Outputs:

• abyssc — the compiler
• abyss_vm — the virtual machine

Verify install:

bash tests/run.sh
# Expected: All 29 checks passed.

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🚀 Quick Start

Create game.al:

struct Weapon {
    int damage;
    str name;
}

void main() {
    print("Equipping player...");

    // Allocate on the stack with an Abyss Eye memory comment
    Weapon sword = stack(Weapon, "Player's main sword");
    sword.damage = 50;
    sword.name = "Excalibur";

    // String + int concatenation (v13+)
    str report = "Damage: " + sword.damage;
    print(report);

    // Summon the Memory Resonance HUD
    abyss_eye();
}

VM mode (for debugging + Abyss Eye):

./abyssc game.al game.aby
./abyss_vm game.aby

Native mode (for maximum speed):

./abyssc --native game.al game_native
./game_native

Native mode with profiler:

./abyssc --native --eye game.al game_debug
./game_debug

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📖 Language Features (v13)

Core

• Statically typed: int, float, char, str, void
• Numeric literals: decimal 42, hex 0xFF, float 3.14, char 'A' with escape sequences
• null keyword for pointer-typed variables
• Block and line comments: /* ... */ and //

Operators

• Arithmetic with int↔float auto-promotion
• Short-circuit && and ||
• Full bitwise suite: & | ^ ~ << >>
• All compound assignments: += -= *= /= %= <<= >>= &= |= ^= (in statements and for-loop step)
• Ternary ? :

Functions

• Three declaration forms: void name(), int name(), function name() : (int ret)
• Multiple return values (tuples), up to 8
• Forward references with mutual recursion
• Argument type checking at every call site
• Namespaced functions: std.math.pow(2, 10)

Memory

• Heap: new(Type, "comment"), arrays: new(Type, N)
• Stack: stack(Type) — auto-freed on return
• Manual: free(ptr)
• Abyss Eye profiler: abyss_eye(); — no debug symbols needed

Types

• Structs with nested fields and compound field assignment
• Enums with auto-increment and explicit values
• Interfaces with dynamic dispatch, including tuple returns (v13+)
• Arrays with heap allocation

Error Handling

• try / catch / throw with string error values
• Nested try/catch with re-throwing

String Features (v13+)

• Dynamic concatenation: "hello " + name (heap-allocated)
• String + number: "x=" + 42 → "x=42"
• Float conversion: "pi=" + 3.14 → "pi=3.140000"

Modules

• import std.math; — relative path loading
• Idempotent (importing twice is free)
• Self-hosted stdlib: std.math, std.time, std.io, std.array

For the complete language reference, see LANGUAGE_GUIDE.md.

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🧩 VSCode Extension

AbyssLang ships with official VSCode support:

1. Go to the /releases folder.
2. Install abysslang-0.2.0.vsix in Visual Studio Code.
3. Enjoy syntax highlighting, bracket matching, and code snippets for structs, enums, and interfaces.

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🧪 Regression Tests

29 integration tests cover the full language surface — arithmetic, floats, control flow, imports, structs, bitwise, try/catch, interfaces, arrays, tuples, forward references, mutual recursion, and every compile-time limit. Each test runs against both the VM and the native backend.

bash tests/run.sh

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Current focus areas:

• std.str — string parsing, splitting, to_int, trunc
• std.fs — file I/O beyond stdin
• std.net — socket bindings
• std.json

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before submitting pull requests. Major architectural changes should be discussed in an Issue first.

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🗺️ Roadmap

Planned for v14 and beyond:

• Explicit cast syntax: (int)f, (char)(n % 256)
• Array literals: int[] a = {1, 2, 3};
• Named struct literals: Vec{x=1, y=2}
• Array element-type tracking through indexing
• std.math.fmod() for float modulo
• Optional --safe compile flag (bounds checks, null checks, catchable div-by-zero)
• Source line/column mapping in runtime errors
• Stack traces on uncaught throw
• REPL
• Debugger (step, breakpoints, variable inspection)
• Package manager / module registry

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📜 License

AbyssLang is open-source and licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

See the LICENSE file. Free to use, modify, and distribute in both open-source and commercial projects.

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Built from scratch. Zero dependencies. Total control. Designed and written in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.