nicolasmd87 / aether

Aether Programming Language [ ]() A compiled actor-based programming language with type inference, designed for concurrent systems. Aether compiles to C for native performance and seamless C interoperability. Overview Aether is a compiled language that brings actor-based concurrency to systems programming. The compiler generates readable C code, providing portability and interoperability with existing C libraries. **Core Features:** • Actor-based concurrency with automatic multi-core scheduling • Type inference with optional annotations • Compiles to readable C for portability and C library interop • Lock-free message passing with adaptive optimizations Runtime Features The Aether runtime implements a native actor system with optimized message passing: Concurrency Model • **Multi-core partitioned scheduler** with locality-aware actor placement • **Locality-aware spawning** — actors placed on the caller's core for efficient parent-child messaging • **Message-driven migration** — communicating actors automatically converge onto the same core • **Work-stealing fallback** for idle core balancing • **Lock-free SPSC queues** for same-core messaging • **Cross-core messaging** with lock-free mailboxes Memory Management • **Manual by default** — use for cleanup. All allocations cleaned up explicitly. • **Arena allocators** for actor lifetimes • **Memory pools** with thread-local allocation • **Actor pooling** reducing allocation overhead • **Zero-copy message delivery** in single-actor main-thread mode (caller stack passed directly) Message Optimization • **Sender-side batching** for reduced overhead • **Message coalescing** for higher throughput • **Adaptive batching** dynamically adjusts batch sizes • **Direct send** for same-core actors bypasses queues Advanced Features • **SIMD batch processing** with AVX2 support • **NUMA-aware allocation** for multi-socket systems • **CPU feature detection** for runtime optimization selection • **Performance profiling** with per-core cycle counting • **Message tracing** for debugging Benchmarks Aether includes a comprehensive cross-language benchmark suite comparing actor implementations across 11 languages. Run to evaluate performance on your system. See benchmarks/cross-language/ for methodology and implementation details. Quick Start Install **Linux / macOS — one-line install:** Installs to and adds to your PATH. Restart your terminal or run , , or . **Windows — download and run:** • Download from Releases • Extract to any folder (e.g. ) • Add to your PATH • **Restart your terminal** (so PATH takes effect) • Run GCC is downloaded automatically the first time you run a program (~80 MB, one-time) — no MSYS2 or manual toolchain setup required. **All platforms — manage versions with :** Your First Program Or run a single file directly: Editor Setup (Optional) Install syntax highlighting for a better coding experience: **VS Code / Cursor:** This provides: • Syntax highlighting with TextMate grammar • Custom "Aether Erlang" dark theme • file icons Development Build (without installing) If you prefer to build without installing: The Command is the single entry point for everything — like or : In a project directory (with ), and compile as the program entry point. You can also pass as the directory: or . **Using Make (alternative):** **Windows:** Use the release binary — no MSYS2 needed. To build from source, use MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit shell; runs the full suite (compiler, ae, stdlib, REPL, C tests, .ae tests, examples) with no skips. Project Structure Language Example Runtime Configuration When embedding the Aether runtime in a C application, configure optimizations at startup: Available flags: • - Detect CPU features and enable optimizations • - Use lock-free SPSC mailboxes • - AVX2 vectorization for batch operations • - MWAIT-based idle (x86 only) • - Print runtime configuration Optimization Tiers The runtime employs a tiered optimization strategy: **TIER 1 - Always Enabled:** • Actor pooling (reduces allocation overhead) • Direct send for same-core actors (bypasses queues) • Adaptive batching (adjusts batch size dynamically) • Message coalescing (combines small messages) • Thread-local message pools **TIER 2 - Auto-Detected:** • SIMD batch processing (requires AVX2/NEON) • MWAIT idle (requires x86 MONITOR/MWAIT) • CPU core pinning (OS-dependent) **TIER 3 - Opt-In:** • Lock-free mailbox (better under contention) • Message deduplication (prevents duplicate processing) Documentation • Getting Started Guide - Installation and first steps • Language Tutorial - Learn Aether syntax and concepts • Language Reference - Complete language specification • C Interoperability - Using C libraries and the keyword • Architecture Overview - Runtime and compiler design • Memory Management - defer-first manual model, arena allocators • Runtime Optimizations - Performance techniques • Cross-Language Benchmarks - Comparative performance analysis • Docker Setup - Container development environment Development Running Tests Running Benchmarks The benchmark suite compares Aether against C, C++, Go, Rust, Java, Zig, Erlang, Elixir, Pony, and Scala using baseline actor implementations. Results are system-dependent. Status Aether is under active development. The compiler, runtime, and standard library are functional and tested. **What works today:** • Full compiler pipeline with Rust-style diagnostics (file, line, column, source context, caret, hints) • Multi-core actor runtime with locality-aware placement, message-driven migration, and work-stealing fallback • Main-thread actor mode — single-actor programs bypass the scheduler entirely (zero-overhead path) • Batch fan-out send for main-to-many patterns • Lock-free message passing with adaptive optimizations • Module system with pure Aether modules, export visibility, and namespace-qualified calls • Standard library (collections, networking, JSON, file I/O, math, OS/shell) • Interactive…