Introduction to Ferret

Ferret is a modern, type-safe programming language designed for clarity, safety, and developer productivity.

Type Safety

Ferret’s powerful type system catches errors at compile-time, not runtime. With optional types, error types, and flow-sensitive type narrowing, you can write code with confidence.

Modern Syntax

Clean, expressive syntax that’s easy to learn and pleasant to write. Inspired by the best features of modern languages.

Error Handling

First-class error handling with result types (E ! T) that make dealing with failures explicit and safe.

Optional Types

No more null pointer exceptions! Optional types (T?) and the coalescing operator (??) make handling missing values a breeze.

Quick Example

run

import "std/io";
// Variables with type inference
// Functions
fn greet(name: str) -> str {
    return "Hello, " + name + "!";
}

fn main() {
    let name: str = "Ferret";
    let version: i32 = 1;

    // Optional types
    let maybeValue: i32? = 42;

    if maybeValue != none {
        // Type narrowing - maybeValue is i32 here
        let doubled: i32 = maybeValue * 2;
    }

    // Coalescing operator for default values
    let value: i32 = maybeValue ?? 0;

    io::Println(greet(name));
}