Gleam (programming language)

Gleam
Lucy, the starfish mascot for Gleam[1]
ParadigmMulti-paradigm: functional, concurrent[2]
Designed byLouis Pilfold
DeveloperLouis Pilfold
First appearedJune 13, 2016; 8 years ago (2016-06-13)
Stable release
1.6.3[3] Edit this on Wikidata / 4 December 2024
Typing disciplineType-safe, static, inferred[2]
Memory managementGarbage collected
Implementation languageRust
OSFreeBSD, Linux, macOS, OpenBSD, Windows[4]
LicenseApache License 2.0[5]
Filename extensions.gleam
Websitegleam.run
Influenced by
[6]

Gleam is a general-purpose, concurrent, functional high-level programming language that compiles to Erlang or JavaScript source code.[2][7][8]

Gleam is a statically-typed language,[9] which is different from the most popular languages that run on Erlang’s virtual machine BEAM, Erlang and Elixir. Gleam has its own type-safe implementation of OTP, Erlang's actor framework.[10] Packages are provided using the Hex package manager, and an index for finding packages written for Gleam is available.[11]

History

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The first numbered version of Gleam was released on April 15, 2019.[12] Compiling to JavaScript was introduced with version v0.16.[13]

In 2023 the Erlang Ecosystem Foundation funded the creation of a course for learning Gleam on the learning platform Exercism.[14]

Version v1.0.0 was released on March 4, 2024.[15]

Features

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Gleam includes the following features, many common to other functional programming languages:[8]

Example

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A "Hello, World!" example:

import gleam/io  pub fn main() {   io.println("hello, world!") }

Gleam supports tail call optimization:[16]

pub fn factorial(x: Int) -> Int {   // The public function calls the private tail recursive function   factorial_loop(x, 1) }  fn factorial_loop(x: Int, accumulator: Int) -> Int {   case x {     1 -> accumulator      // The last thing this function does is call itself     _ -> factorial_loop(x - 1, accumulator * x)   } }

Implementation

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Gleam's toolchain is implemented in the Rust programming language.[17] The toolchain is a single native binary executable which contains the compiler, build tool, package manager, source code formatter, and language server. A WebAssembly binary containing the Gleam compiler is also available, enabling Gleam code to be compiled within a web browser.

References

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  1. ^ "gleam-lang/gleam Issues - New logo and mascot #2551". GitHub.
  2. ^ a b c "Gleam Homepage". 2024.
  3. ^ "Release 1.6.3". December 4, 2024. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
  4. ^ "Installing Gleam". 2024.
  5. ^ "Gleam License File". GitHub. December 5, 2021.
  6. ^ Pilfold, Louis (February 7, 2024). "Gleam: Past, Present, Future!". Fosdem 2024 – via YouTube.
  7. ^ Krill, Paul (March 5, 2024). "Gleam language available in first stable release". InfoWorld. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
  8. ^ a b Eastman, David (June 22, 2024). "Introduction to Gleam, a New Functional Programming Language". The New Stack. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  9. ^ De Simone, Sergio (March 16, 2024). "Erlang-Runtime Statically-Typed Functional Language Gleam Reaches 1.0". InfoQ. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
  10. ^ Getting to know Actors in Gleam - Raúl Chouza. Code BEAM America. March 27, 2024. Retrieved May 6, 2024 – via YouTube.
  11. ^ "Introducing the Gleam package index – Gleam". gleam.run. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  12. ^ "Hello, Gleam! – Gleam". gleam.run. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  13. ^ "v0.16 - Gleam compiles to JavaScript! – Gleam". gleam.run. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  14. ^ Alistair, Woodman (December 2023). "Erlang Ecosystem Foundation Annual General Meeting 2023 Chair's Report".
  15. ^ "Gleam version 1 – Gleam". gleam.run. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  16. ^ "Tail Calls". The Gleam Language Tour. Retrieved March 26, 2024.
  17. ^ gleam-lang/gleam, Gleam, May 6, 2024, retrieved May 6, 2024
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