The Mun Programming Language

Hello, fibonacci?

Most programming languages start off with a "Hello, world!" example, but not Mun. Mun is designed around the concept of hot reloading. Our philosophy is to only add new language constructs when those can be hot reloaded. Since the first building blocks of Mun were native types and functions our divergent example has become fibonacci, hence "Hello, fibonacci?".

Creating a Project Directory

The Mun compiler is agnostic to the location of a project directory, as long as all source files are in the same place. Let's open a terminal to create our first project directory:

mkdir hello_fibonacci
cd hello_fibonacci

Writing and Running a Mun Library

Next, make a new source file and call it hello_fibonacci.mun. Mun files always end with the .mun extension. If your file name consists of multiple words, separate them using underscores.

Open up the new source file and enter the code in Listing 1-1.

Filename: hello_fibonacci.mun

pub fn fibonacci_n() -> i64 {
    let n = arg();
    fibonacci(n)
}

fn arg() -> i64 {
    5
}

fn fibonacci(n: i64) -> i64 {
    if n <= 1 {
        n
    } else {
        fibonacci(n - 1) + fibonacci(n - 2)
    }
}

Listing 1-1: A function that calculates a fibonacci number

Save the file and go back to your terminal window. You are now ready to compile your first Mun library. Enter the following command to compile the file:

mun build hello_fibonacci.mun

Contrary to many other languages, Mun doesn't support standalone applications, instead it is shipped in the form of Mun libraries - recognisable by their *.munlib extension. That's why Mun comes with a command-line interface (CLI) that can both compile and run Mun libraries. To run a Mun library, enter the following command:

mun start hello_fibonacci.munlib --entry fibonacci_n

The result of fibonacci_n (i.e. 5) should now appear in your terminal. Congratulations! You just successfully created and ran your first Mun library.