AstonJ

AstonJ

The Hamler Programming Language

Another BEAM language…

The Hamler Programming Language

Hamler is a strongly-typed language with compile-time typechecking and built-in support for concurrency and distribution.

Hamler empowers industries to build the next generation of scalable, reliable, realtime applications, especially for 5G, IoT and edge computing.

Why Hamler?

For almost a decade, we have been developing software systems based on Erlang/OTP, especially our main product EMQ X - the scalable open-source MQTT broker. So, we have always believed that Erlang is a masterpiece of engineering. With amazing concurrency, distribution and fault tolerance, it is one of the few general-purpose language platforms able to properly handle concurrency and soft realtime.

However, from all the experience writing Erlang, we believe that the following features can help Erlang programmer better adapt to the coming wave of 5G, IoT and edge-programming and attract more people for using BEAM.

  • Compile-time type checking and type reference
  • ADTs, Function Composition, Type Classes
  • More friendly syntax for prosperous communities
  • Functor, Applicative and Monad…:slight_smile:

Now all the features are avaliable in the Hamler programming language.

Features

  • Functional programming
  • Haskell and ML style
  • ADT and Type Checking/Inference
  • Functions, higher-order functions
  • Currying and partial application
  • Pattern matching, and Guards
  • List comprehension
  • Applicative and Monad
  • Advanced module system
  • Built-in concurrency

Design

The Hamler source code is parsed to generate CST, then CoreErlang’s IR is generated after CST → AST → CoreFn’s syntax tree transformation, syntax analysis and type checking. The code is then used by the Erlang compiler to generate the final Beam bytecode.

The Hamler compiler architecture is shown below:

hamler-compiler

The Hamler 0.1 compiler was initially attempted to be implemented based on the GHC 8.10.1, but was later changed to adapt from Purescript Compiler 0.13.6’s

Link:

Most Liked

lpil

lpil

Creator of Gleam

I would be very interested to learn why they have created a new PureScript backend rather than using Purerl, the existing PureScript backend for Erlang.

From reading the compiler’s source code it seems the only new thing is the Erlang generation, so I would suggest this PureScript with a different name rather than a new language. Perhaps more changes are to come later.

Qqwy

Qqwy

Very interesting!

How does Hamler compare to Haskell, PureScript and e.g. Gleam?

It is currently based on the PureScript compiler. Does this mean that its syntax/semantics are (essentially) the same as PureScript (with changes in what is available in the standard library to e.g. support the BEAM VM’s features)? Or something else entirely?

How do Hamler datatypes compile down to Erlang’s built-in datatypes, and how easy is it to communicate (using e.g. a foreign-function-interface) with pre-existing Erlang/Elixir/etc. code?

Where Next?

Popular Backend topics Top

First poster: bot
Kotlin v1.4.20 has been released. Link: Release Kotlin 1.4.20 · JetBrains/kotlin · GitHub
New
First poster: dimitarvp
A new Rust blog post/announcement has been posted! Get the full details here: Announcing Rust 1.53.0 | Rust Blog
New
ManningBooks
Deep Learning with Python, Second Edition is a comprehensive introduction to the field of deep learning using Python and the powerful Ker...
New
First poster: KnowledgeIsPower
A new Kotlin blog post/announcement has been posted! Get the full details here: Learn the Kotlin Basics for Free on JetBrains Academy |...
New
First poster: bot
Node.js v18.16.0 has been released. Link: Release 2023-04-12, Version 18.16.0 'Hydrogen' (LTS), @danielleadams · nodejs/node · GitHub
New
NewsBot
A new R blog post/announcement has been posted! Get the full details here: R on 64-bit ARM Windows - The R Blog
New
NewsBot
Node.js v22.14.0 has been released. Link: Release 2025-02-11, Version 22.14.0 'Jod' (LTS), @aduh95 · nodejs/node · GitHub
New
NewsBot
A new Kotlin blog post/announcement has been posted! Get the full details here: What’s Next for Kotlin Multiplatform and Compose Multip...
New
NewsBot
A new PostgreSQL blog post/announcement has been posted! Get the full details here: PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL 18.1, 17.7, 16.11, 15.15, 14...
New
NewsBot
A new Go blog post/announcement has been posted! Get the full details here: https://go.dev/blog/survey2025
New

Other popular topics Top

PragmaticBookshelf
Stop developing web apps with yesterday’s tools. Today, developers are increasingly adopting Clojure as a web-development platform. See f...
New
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Free and open source software is the default choice for the technologies that run our world, and it’s built and maintained by people like...
New
DevotionGeo
I know that -t flag is used along with -i flag for getting an interactive shell. But I cannot digest what the man page for docker run com...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Tailwind CSS is an exciting new CSS framework that allows you to design your site by composing simple utility classes to create complex e...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Use WebRTC to build web applications that stream media and data in real time directly from one user to another, all in the browser. ...
New
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Build modern server-driven web applications using htmx. Whatever programming language you use, you’ll write less (and cleaner) code. ...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
A masterclass in the fundamentals and principles of functional programming. Minh Quang Tran The Art of Functional Programming is a ma...
New
AstonJ
Curious what kind of results others are getting, I think actually prefer the 7B model to the 32B model, not only is it faster but the qua...
New