Getting Started

Welcome to Chemical! This guide will help you set up your environment and create your first high-performance application.

1. Installation

1. Download the latest compiler for your architecture from the Releases page.
2. Extract the binary to a directory on your machine.
3. Open a terminal as Administrator (Windows) or use sudo (Linux) and run:

chemical configure

This automatically sets the CHEMICAL_HOME environment variable and adds the compiler to your PATH.

2. Your First Project

Chemical projects are defined by a chemical.mod file. This file tells the compiler about your module's name, source directory, and dependencies.

Create the Structure

Create a new directory and these two files: chemical.mod

module hello_world

source "src"

import std

src/main.ch

public func main() : int {

    printf("Hello, Chemical!\n");

    return 0;

}

What's happening in chemical.mod file

source "src" would add the src directory and any file inside it (recursively) that has a .ch extension import std exports printf symbol

Where's all the imports

Do not write import statements in files ending with .ch extension, Import statements are only valid in chemical.mod and build.lab files.

3. Building and Running

chemical chemical.mod -o hello.exe

4. Multiple modules

use this in a chemical.mod file to import a module that exists locally

import "my_mod"

Notice this time, I added quotes around my_mod, this tells the compiler that its a directory. Compiler then looks for a chemical.mod file in the directory, at path my_mod/chemical.mod and compiles that too.