Matcha

Matcha is an experimental compiled programming language with a GC-managed runtime. The project is still early in development, but it already includes a real compiler, runtime, and CLI capable of producing native binaries from Matcha source code.

What Matcha looks like

Snippet adapted from matcha-compiler/examples/learning-matcha.mt:

val numbers = [2, 3, 4, 5];
var sum = 0;
for number in numbers {
    sum += number;
}

val label = match sum {
    14 => "expected total",
    else => "unexpected total",
};
printString(label);

item Point = structure {
    x: int;
    y: int;

    item origin(): Point = .{
        x = 0,
        y = 0,
    };

    item invert(self: Point): unit = {
        self.x *= -1;
        self.y *= -1;
    };

    item movedBy(self: Point, other: Point): Point = .{
        x = self.x + other.x,
        y = self.y + other.y,
    };

    item length(self: Point): int = self.x * self.x + self.y * self.y;

    item print(self: Point): unit = printString(
        "Point { x = " + self.x.toString() + ", y = " + self.y.toString() + " } (length: " + self.length().toString() + ")"
    );
};

val origin = Point.origin();
val offset: Point = .{ x = 3, y = 6 };
val other_point = origin.movedBy(offset);
other_point.invert();
other_point.print();

Start here

• Matcha goals explains why the language exists, what it optimizes for, and what it intentionally does not try to be.
• learning-matcha.mt is a runnable tour of the current language surface.

Warning

Matcha is early-stage software. The language, compiler, runtime, CLI, and tooling may all change significantly.

Quick try on macOS

1. Optional: install the VS Code extension

Install Matcha Language Support from the Visual Studio Marketplace for syntax highlighting and basic editor integration.

2. Install the compiler

brew tap mario-nowak/tap
brew install mario-nowak/tap/matcha-lang

If clang is not available yet, install Xcode Command Line Tools:

xcode-select --install

3. Clone the repository and run an example

git clone https://github.com/mario-nowak/matcha.git
cd matcha/matcha-compiler
matcha run examples/learning-matcha.mt

For full setup, source builds, and compiler usage, see matcha-compiler/README.md.

Current status

Today, the compiler can already handle a meaningful core language, including:

• val and var
• int, boolean, and string
• arrays with indexing, append, and length
• structures with fields, methods, and type functions
• if, while, for, loop, and match
• built-ins such as printInt, printString, readFile, readLine, and getArguments
• LLVM IR emission and native binary generation

The documented compiler setup is currently macOS-first.

What is in this repository?

This repository is a monorepo with two main parts:

• matcha-compiler/ — the compiler, runtime, CLI, tests, and example programs
• tooling/ide-extensions/vs-code-extension/ — a VS Code extension with syntax highlighting and basic editor support

Monorepo layout

.
├── matcha-compiler/                     # compiler, runtime, examples, tests
├── tooling/ide-extensions/
│   └── vs-code-extension/              # VS Code extension
└── assets/                             # logos and project assets

Suggested starting points

• matcha-compiler/README.md — compiler setup, commands, and development workflow
• matcha-compiler/examples/learning-matcha.mt — guided tour of the currently implemented language
• matcha-compiler/examples/aoc-2024-01.mt — Advent of Code-style parsing and array processing
• matcha-compiler/examples/customer-import-audit.mt — a more domain-shaped example using structures and match
• tooling/ide-extensions/vs-code-extension/README.md — VS Code extension documentation