urbit/pub/doc/hoon.md
2015-06-19 17:16:48 -04:00

804 B

hoon

hoon is our programming language.

hoon is a strict, typed, functional language that compiles itself to nock. The hoon compiler is 4000 lines of hoon. Adding standard libraries, the self-compiling kernel is 8000 lines. The hoon compiler is located towards the bottom of /=main=/arvo/hoon.hoon. The standard library is split between /=main=/arvo/hoon.hoon and /=main=/arvo/zuse.hoon.

hoon has no particular familial relationship to other languages you may know. It uses its own type inference algorithm and is as different from Haskell as from Lisp. hoon syntax is also completely unfamiliar. hoon uses ascii digraphs, which we call 'runes', instead of reserved words.