Quartz v0.1.0 — First Stable Release! 🚀

Today marks a historic moment for the Quartz project. We're proud to announce the first stable release of the Quartz programming language. After extensive development and testing, Quartz v0.1.0 is ready for the world.

What is Quartz?

Quartz is a minimalist programming language designed for developers who value simplicity, transparency, and control. Think of it as the "Arch Linux of programming languages"—it gives you the tools without making decisions for you.

Core Features

🚀 Dual Execution Modes

Run code directly with the interpreter for rapid prototyping, or compile to optimized bytecode for production:

# Interpret directly
./quartz script.qz

# Compile to bytecode
./quartz --compile script.qz

# Run compiled bytecode
./quartz --run script.qzb

📦 First-Class Functions & Lambdas

Functions are values. Pass them around, store them, compose them:

import system.collection as c;

let numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
let doubled = c.map(numbers, (x) => x * 2);
// [2, 4, 6, 8, 10]

🏛️ Clean Object-Oriented Programming

Classes, methods, inheritance—with a familiar, clean syntax:

class Circle {
    double radius;

    fn area() -> double {
        return 3.14159 * radius * radius;
    }
}

let c = new Circle();
c.radius = 5.0;
io.out.println("Area:", c.area());

🔌 Native C++ Extensions

Need raw performance? Write C++ extensions that integrate seamlessly:

extern "C" void init_extension(FunctionRegistry& registry) {
    registry.registerFunction("my.fastFunc", 
        [](std::vector<Value>& args) -> Value {
            // Your high-performance code here
        });
}

🛡️ Exception Handling

Proper try-catch-finally blocks with typed exceptions:

try {
    riskyOperation();
} catch (FileError e) {
    io.err.println("File error:", e.message);
} catch (NetworkError e) {
    io.err.println("Network error:", e.message);
} finally {
    cleanup();
}

📚 Comprehensive Standard Library

system.io — Console I/O, formatted output
system.math — Mathematical functions
system.string — String manipulation
system.fs — File system operations
system.collection — map, filter, reduce, and more
system.time — Date, time, and timing utilities
system.json — JSON parsing and serialization
system.env — Environment variables

Language Highlights

Feature	Quartz v0.1.0
Execution Modes	Interpreter + Bytecode VM
Typing	Dynamic with type hints
OOP	Classes, inheritance, methods
Functional	Lambdas, closures, higher-order functions
Exception Handling	try-catch-finally
Native Extensions	Full C++ API
Platform	Linux, macOS

Getting Started

Getting Quartz running takes less than a minute:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/quartz-org/quartz.git
cd quartz

# Build
bash build.sh

# Run your first program
echo 'import system.io as io; io.out.println("Hello, Quartz!");' > hello.qz
./build/quartz hello.qz

Download

What's Next?

This is just the beginning. Our roadmap includes:

JIT Compilation — Even faster execution (experimental)
Package Manager — Share and distribute Quartz libraries
IDE Support — VS Code extension with syntax highlighting and intellisense
Expanded Platform Support — Windows, WebAssembly

Thank You

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to making this release possible. Your feedback, bug reports, and code contributions have shaped Quartz into what it is today.

Quartz v0.1.0 is here. The future is minimal. ✨

Questions? Issues? Join us on GitHub!