Recurse Center

This week, three people shared their handmade programming languages: Ryan Goldstein’s Felt, Bruce Hill’s Tomo, and Frederic Kettelhoit’s Kombucha. We learned not only about their features and syntax but the philosophies, joys, and challenges around building them. Could you build your own language? Should you? We dare say… yes!

Thank you to everyone who came to our December Localhost. We’ll see you next year!

📸 Photos by .zip

🌩️🌩️🌩️ Please join us for a very special set of three lightning talks from RC alums who are building their own programming languages: Ryan Goldstein on Felt, Bruce Hill on Tomo, and Frederic Kettelhoit on Kombucha.

✨RSVP in bio! 🔗

Localhost is a series of technical talks in NYC given by members of the Recurse Center community. For every event, we set aside seats for the public.

Felt - Ryan Goldstein

Felt is a programming language designed to write games and toys. The project includes the Felt compiler (which outputs WebAssembly), the Felt language server, and a tree-sitter grammar for syntax highlighting.

Tomo: The Language of Tomorrow — Bruce Hill

Tomo is a fast, simple, and safe programming language that cross-compiles to C with garbage collection. Tomo is statically typed and imperative, but borrows some of the best ideas from functional and array programming languages and some of the conveniences and readability of dynamic languages like Python.

Kombucha: A Minimal and Malleable Language — Frederic Kettelhoit

Building a useful programming language can feel like a monumental task, requiring countless contributors and years of work. But what if we approached implementing a programming language less like building the pyramids and more like cooking a meal, something that is small and personal, yet also useful? Fred is exploring the idea of home-cooked software by building Kombucha, a small and personal language that is meant to be used symbiotically within a larger ecosystem.

Doors open and refreshments will be available at 6:30 pm. The talks will begin at 7:00 pm. Mingling to follow.

This event is in-person only. A recording of the talk will be made available on the Recurse Center YouTube channel.