Wave language overview

official/en/getting-started/overviewgetting-started/overviewengetting-started

1Wave language overview

A practical introduction to Wave syntax, program structure, console I/O, and low-level facilities.

official/en/getting-started/installgetting-started/installengetting-started

2Installing Wave

Install the Wave compiler and Vex package manager with the official script, verify the toolchain, or use release archives.

official/en/getting-started/compilergetting-started/compilerengetting-started

3Compiler command reference

wavec commands for building, checking, running, linking, inspecting targets, and integrating build tools.

official/en/getting-started/design-goalsgetting-started/design-goalsengetting-started

4Language design

Wave's principles for explicit low-level control, static typing, native interoperability, and clear language boundaries.

official/en/language/lexical-structurelanguage/lexical-structureenlanguage

1Lexical structure

Identifiers, literals, statement delimiters, keywords, and built-in type spellings.

official/en/language/declarations-and-typeslanguage/declarations-and-typesenlanguage

2Declarations and types

Local bindings, top-level constants and static storage, built-in types, arrays, and type aliases.

official/en/language/expressions-and-operatorslanguage/expressions-and-operatorsenlanguage

3Expressions and operators

Assignment, arithmetic, bitwise and logical operations, casts, increment/decrement, and operator precedence.

official/en/language/control-flowlanguage/control-flowenlanguage

4Control flow

Parenthesized conditionals and loops, C-style for loops, match, break, and continue.

official/en/language/functions-and-genericslanguage/functions-and-genericsenlanguage

5Functions and generics

Function declarations, return values, default parameters, and explicit generic instantiation.

official/en/language/structures-enums-and-aliaseslanguage/structures-enums-and-aliasesenlanguage

6Structs, enums, and type aliases

Struct fields and methods, proto extensions, enums with explicit representation types, and type aliases.

official/en/language/explicit-memory-type-modellanguage/explicit-memory-type-modelenlanguage

7Pointers and explicit memory access

The Wave Explicit Memory Type Model, ptr<T>, arrays, address-of, deref, null, and manual-memory contracts.

official/en/language/modules-imports-and-ffilanguage/modules-imports-and-ffienlanguage

8Modules, imports, and FFI

Local, standard-library, and package imports; namespaces, visibility, re-exports; and C ABI declarations.

official/en/language/inline-assemblylanguage/inline-assemblyenlanguage

9Inline assembly

Instruction strings, in/out operands, and clobber contracts inside asm blocks.

official/en/language/program-structurelanguage/program-structureenlanguage

10Program structure

Top-level declarations, the main entry point, import organization, and freestanding entry symbols.

official/en/language/commentslanguage/commentsenlanguage

11Comments

Line comments, nestable block comments, and diagnostics for unterminated comments.

official/en/language/storage-durationlanguage/storage-durationenlanguage

12Storage duration and mutability

Distinguish the scope and write semantics of var, const, and static.

official/en/language/console-io-and-formattinglanguage/console-io-and-formattingenlanguage

13Console I/O and formatting

The print, println, and input statements and their placeholder rules.

official/en/reference/standard-libraryreference/standard-libraryenreference

1Standard library index

The top-level Wave standard-library modules, import paths, API discovery, and platform boundaries.

official/en/reference/diagnosticsreference/diagnosticsenreference

2Diagnostics and troubleshooting

Human and JSON diagnostics, check mode, debug output, and a reproducible bug-report workflow.

official/en/reference/syntax-quick-referencereference/syntax-quick-referenceenreference

3Syntax quick reference

Frequently used declarations, control flow, types, pointers, and FFI syntax on one page.

official/en/reference/string-and-bytesreference/string-and-bytesenreference

4Strings and bytes

String submodules, len/is_empty, comparison, search, trimming, ASCII helpers, and endian-aware byte operations.

official/en/reference/memory-and-bufferreference/memory-and-bufferenreference

5Memory and buffers

Manual allocation, copying, alignment, page helpers in std::mem, and safe usage patterns around std::buffer.

official/en/reference/system-io-network-processreference/system-io-network-processenreference

6System I/O, files, networking, and processes

FD-based I/O, file systems, sockets/TCP/UDP, process APIs, and their failure contracts.

official/en/toolchain/ecosystemtoolchain/ecosystementoolchain

1Whale toolchain

The role and component boundaries of Wave's separate low-level assembler, object, linker, and IR toolchain.

official/en/toolchain/build-link-targetstoolchain/build-link-targetsentoolchain

2Build, link, and target options

Emit artifacts, input kinds, native linking, target/CPU/ABI controls, and freestanding build plans.

official/en/toolchain/vex-package-managertoolchain/vex-package-managerentoolchain

3Vex package manager

Manifest-based Wave projects, Git and path dependencies, lockfiles, offline builds, and the wavec boundary.

official/en/toolchain/whale-clitoolchain/whale-clientoolchain

4Whale command reference

AMD64 assembly, ELF64 object construction, developer inspection, and the optional Whale IR socket command.

official/en/whale/overviewwhale/overviewenwhale

1Whale documentation

Toolchain components, available commands, and reference manuals.

official/en/whale/ir-referencewhale/ir-referenceenwhale

2Whale IR reference

Types, identities, well-formed functions, evaluation order, and interchange rules.

official/en/whale/numeric-operationswhale/numeric-operationsenwhale

3Numeric operations

Integer wrapping, checked arithmetic, shifts, conversion errors, and floating-point results.

official/en/whale/memory-modelwhale/memory-modelenwhale

4Memory model

Tracked allocations, initialized reads, pointer arithmetic, layout, and string storage.

official/en/whale/o0-debuggingwhale/o0-debuggingenwhale

5O0 and debugging

Preservation of source computations, constant expressions, storage, and debug correspondence.

official/en/whale/amd64-targetwhale/amd64-targetenwhale

6AMD64 target and ABI

Linux AMD64 target properties, calling boundaries, and native feature coverage.

official/en/whale/assembler-linkerwhale/assembler-linkerenwhale

7Assembler and static linking

Operand encoding, section layout, symbol binding, and executable entry points.