Wave language overview

About Wave

Wave is a statically typed systems programming language designed for native code generation and explicit low-level control. Types, memory access, native interfaces, and target settings remain visible in source code and build commands.

First program

fun main() {
    println("Hello, Wave!");
}

Save the source as main.wave and run it with:

wavec run main.wave

To build an executable without running it:

wavec build main.wave -o app

Hosted executables normally start at main. Freestanding builds can select another entry symbol together with the appropriate linker configuration.

Basic statement style

Wave keeps function signatures explicit. Local variables declare their type after the variable name.

fun add(left: i32, right: i32) -> i32 {
    var result: i32 = left + right;
    return result;
}

fun main() {
    var count: i32 = 1;
    var next: i32 = count + 1;
    count += 1;
    println("count = {}, next = {}", count, next);
}

var is the syntax for declaring a local variable. Local declarations use var name: Type = value; to state the variable type explicitly. const and static are top-level declarations.

Console I/O

print, println, and input are Wave console I/O statements. Their first argument is a string literal, and each {} placeholder corresponds to one following value.

fun main() {
    var value: i32 = 0;
    input("{}", value);
    print("value = ");
    println("{}", value);
}

Low-level facilities

Wave provides ptr<T>, address-of &, explicit deref, C ABI boundaries through extern(c) and export(c), and inline asm. Programs using these facilities define the ownership, bounds, alignment, and lifetime rules required by each memory or native API.

Suggested learning order

1. Install the compiler and check wavec --version and wavec --help.
2. Learn declarations, types, expressions, and control flow.
3. Learn functions, generics, structs, enums, and proto.
4. Move on to pointers, imports, FFI, and the standard library.
5. Use the compiler, Vex, Whale, target, and quick-reference pages as lookup material.