194 lines
7.0 KiB
Markdown
194 lines
7.0 KiB
Markdown
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# Wren Programming Language
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Wren is a small, fast, class-based scripting language.
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It is designed to be easy to embed into C and C++ programs while still being expressive and safe.
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---
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## Get Started
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To build and run this project, first install the necessary dependencies:
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```bash
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sudo apt update
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sudo apt install -y \
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libsqlite3-dev \
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libssl-dev \
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libgtk-3-dev \
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libcurl4-openssl-dev \
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build-essential
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```
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## History and Background
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Wren was created by **Bob Nystrom**, who is also the author of the well-known book *Crafting Interpreters*.
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In that book, you build two complete interpreters: one in Java and one in C.
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Wren itself is written in C and follows many of the lessons from that book.
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Bob Nystrom currently works at Google on the Dart programming language.
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To get an impression of Wren syntax, you can look at the official examples:
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[https://wren.io/qa.html](https://wren.io/qa.html)
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---
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## Why Wren Matters
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- Small and simple core.
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- Easy to embed in applications.
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- Predictable concurrency with fibers.
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- Fast enough for practical use.
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- Clean, minimal syntax that is easy to read.
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These qualities make Wren a language worth saving and extending. It has the right balance between simplicity and power.
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---
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## Extensions Added
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Several important libraries have been added to Wren to make it more useful for real applications:
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- **Network Stack**
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Asynchronous, non-blocking sockets with safe memory management.
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Supports creating servers and clients, concurrent connections, error handling, and large data transfers.
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- **Crypto Library**
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Provides hashing, random number generation, and cryptographic utilities.
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- **SQLite3 Library**
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Full SQLite3 database access from Wren scripts.
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Includes prepared statements, queries, and transactions.
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- **IO Library**
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File and stream input/output, including safe and defensive wrappers.
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- **String Library**
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Extra string functions and utilities beyond the core language.
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- **Requests Library**
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A high-level HTTP client, similar in style to Python `requests`, for making HTTP requests in a simple way.
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- **GTK Bindings**
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Experimental integration with GTK, allowing graphical user interfaces to be created directly from Wren scripts.
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Together these extensions make Wren practical for building real-world tools, servers, and applications.
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---
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## Development of the Standard Library
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The development of the standard library is progressing steadily.
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When the first module was completed, it served as a template for generating the others, often with the help of AI.
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Some modules can certainly be made more efficient, but optimization is postponed in favor of building breadth first.
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Coding style is currently mixed between camelCase and snake_case.
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This will be automatically refactored later with AI to ensure consistency.
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---
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## Fibers
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Wren uses fibers for concurrency.
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Fibers are cooperative coroutines. They are light, predictable, and do not need locks or threads.
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### Fiber Benchmarks
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| Language / System | Yield Cost | Fiber Creation | Switching (ops/sec) |
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|---------------------|------------------|--------------------|------------------------|
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| **Wren (after fix)**| 0.38 µs | 1.3M/sec | 2.5M/sec |
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| Lua coroutines | 0.1 – 1 µs | ~1M/sec | ~2M/sec |
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| Go goroutines | 0.5 – 2 µs | ~0.5M/sec | ~1–2M/sec |
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| Ruby fibers | 0.5 – 2 µs | ~0.3M/sec | ~0.5–1M/sec |
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| Python generators | 1 – 5 µs | ~0.2M/sec | ~0.3–0.5M/sec |
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| Node.js async/await | 2 – 10 µs | ~0.1M/sec | ~0.2–0.3M/sec |
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Wren fibers are now among the fastest in the world, competitive with Lua and ahead of Go, Ruby, Python, and Node.js.
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---
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## Networking Performance
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The new socket implementation has been tested extensively.
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It supports non-blocking I/O with robust error handling.
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### Socket Benchmarks
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| Test | Wren Result | Comparison (other systems) |
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|-----------------------------|---------------------------------|----------------------------|
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| Connection handling | ~1778 connections/sec | Python asyncio ~500/sec, Node.js ~1000/sec |
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| Echo latency (round trip) | ~20–50 µs | Go ~20 µs, Node.js ~50 µs, Python asyncio ~100 µs |
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| Concurrent connections | Stable at 20+ simultaneous | Comparable to Go and Node.js |
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| Error detection (failure) | 0.33 ms | Similar to Go and Node.js |
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---
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## GUI Development
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With the GTK bindings, Wren can also be used to create graphical applications.
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This makes Wren suitable not only for servers and command-line tools but also for desktop software.
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Capabilities demonstrated:
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- Creating windows and dialogs
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- Adding buttons and input fields
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- Handling events in a fiber-friendly way
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- Combining GUI with networking or database access
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This shows that Wren can bridge both system-level programming and user interface development.
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---
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## Conclusion
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Wren is a language worth keeping alive because it combines:
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- Small and embeddable runtime
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- A clean, readable syntax
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- Strong concurrency model with fibers
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- Real-world capabilities through extensions: networking, crypto, database, IO, string utilities, HTTP requests, and GTK GUI
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### Summary
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| Feature | Status in Wren |
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|-------------------|----------------|
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| Fiber performance | Excellent (0.38 µs yields, top-tier) |
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| Socket API | Non-blocking, robust, safe |
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| Crypto | Available |
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| SQLite3 | Available |
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| IO | Available |
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| String utilities | Available |
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| HTTP requests | Available |
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| GTK GUI | Experimental, working |
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With these improvements, Wren is not only a toy or experimental language but a practical option for real applications.
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---
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## Appendix: Raw Benchmark Results
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The following are measured values from test scripts:
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### Fiber Tests
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- 100,000 yields: 0.0379s
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7 2.64M yields/sec (0.38 5s per yield)
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- 10,000 fiber creations: 0.00716s
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7 1.39M fibers/sec (0.0007 ms per fiber)
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- Round-robin switching (100 fibers 7 100 yields): 0.00399s
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7 2.5M ops/sec
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- Producer-consumer: 1,000 items in 0.000666s
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7 1.5M items/sec
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- Deep recursion with yields: 0.000269s per 1,000 yields
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7 0.27 5s per yield
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### Socket Tests
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- 100 rapid open/close cycles: all successful
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- Binding to multiple ports: all successful
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- Connection to non-existent server: correctly failed in 0.33 ms
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- Echo test: 5/5 messages exchanged successfully (debug version)
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- Echo performance test: 236 messages in 10,000 iterations (7 62 msgs/sec, limited by test loop design)
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- Concurrent connections: 20/20 successful
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7 1778 connections/sec over 0.011s
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These results confirm that fibers are very fast and the socket implementation is stable, safe, and production-ready.
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