Skip to content

submissions.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
166 lines (123 loc) · 6.15 KB

submissions.md

File metadata and controls

166 lines (123 loc) · 6.15 KB

1.0 Launch — distribution checklist

Companion to 1.0-announcement.md. Concrete copy for each channel; tick each box on launch day.

Hard prerequisites

  • v1.0.0 git tag pushed; GitHub Release artefacts built and verified (10c-1, 10c-8).
  • Acceptance gate green (10c-9): brew install …/sgl && sgl init test && cd test && sgl run succeeds on a clean macOS VM and a clean Linux VM.
  • Docs site reachable at its production URL (10c-10).
  • CHANGELOG.md 1.0.0 section landed on main (10c-11).
  • Launch post published at the docs site (or natescode.com) — submissions below all link to it.

Hacker News

When: Tuesday–Thursday, ~07:30 Pacific. Personal account. Don't submit during peak hours; quality readers, not algorithmic boost.

Title: Silicon 1.0 — a WebAssembly-targeting systems language where features are data

URL: Link to the docs-site blog post (preferred) or the GitHub release page.

First comment (post within 5 min of submission so it's visible):

Author here. Silicon is a programming language whose differentiator is that every operator, control-flow construct, and definition keyword in the language is defined as Silicon source under src/strata/ rather than as a switch case in the compiler. The reference compiler (Sigil) targets WebAssembly directly and, via QBE, native binaries on Linux + macOS.

Happy to answer questions about the design, the trade-offs against Zig / Rust / Roc, what 1.0 deliberately ships without (LSP, package registry, incremental compile — all v1.1 work), or the strata mechanism itself.

Full known-limitations list is in CHANGELOG.md; the 15-min walkthrough is in docs/getting-started.md.

Engagement rules:

  • Reply substantively to top-level technical comments within ~2h of submission. Don't argue with bad-faith readers; they self-discredit.
  • "Why not just X?" answers — point at the blog post's section, then add the specific nuance the commenter raised.
  • Stay off the meta-thread about HN dynamics. Talk about the language.

Lobste.rs

When: Same window as HN, ~30 min after.

Tags: compilers, plt, release, webassembly

Title: Silicon 1.0 — language features as data, compiling to WASM + native via QBE

Story text (a few sentences — Lobste.rs prefers brief):

Silicon 1.0 ships today. The compiler core does not switch on keyword names — every operator and control-flow construct is a @stratum definition in .si source. Compiles to WAT/WASM and, via QBE, native binaries on Tier 1 Linux + macOS. Comparison against Zig/Rust/Roc, known limitations, and install instructions in the linked post.

Reddit — r/ProgrammingLanguages

Title: Silicon 1.0 — language features as data (strata system), compiles to WebAssembly

Body (Reddit norms — more casual; can be longer than Lobste.rs):

Silicon is a small WebAssembly-targeting systems language whose compiler core has no special-case branches for keywords. @if, @loop, @match, @fn, @global, @struct, @type, @enum, @defer, @try — all are defined as Silicon source under src/strata/ and dispatched data-drivenly. Adding @my_keyword is the same kind of work as writing a function.

1.0 ships today. HM-lite inference, parametric sum types with @match destructure, arena memory with parent-arena escape, native compilation via QBE on Linux + macOS. No LSP, no package registry, no incremental compile at 1.0 — all v1.1 work and called out explicitly in the CHANGELOG.

Blog post (with runnable examples and the "why not Zig/Rust/Roc" section): [LINK]

Repo: https://github.com/NatesCode/silicon 15-min tutorial: docs/getting-started.md

Reddit — r/programming

Title: Silicon 1.0 — a new WebAssembly-targeting systems language

Body: Strip the PLT-specific framing, lean on the WebAssembly + QBE-native angle. Cross-post the blog URL.

X / Mastodon / Bluesky thread

8-post thread. Each ≤ 280 chars. Cross-post to all three.

1/8. Silicon 1.0 is out. A small systems language that compiles to WebAssembly and (via QBE) native binaries on Linux + macOS. The hook: language features are data, not code in the compiler. [LINK to blog post]

2/8. Most languages: adding a new operator means editing the parser, the elaborator, the typechecker, and the lowering pass.

Silicon's compiler core never switches on keyword names.

3/8. Every keyword is a @stratum definition in .si source. @if, @loop, @match, @fn, @struct, @defer, @try — all strata. Adding @my_keyword is the same kind of work as writing a function.

4/8. Example — defining + as a stratum:

@stratum Plus := {
    Compiler::register::operator('+');
    Compiler::on::lower('+', Plus_lower);
};

That's it. The compiler dispatches.

5/8. 1.0 includes: parametric sum types, @match destructure with arm-expression form, HM-lite inference, arenas with parent-arena escape, Rc<T>, @defer, @try, unsigned int types, WasmGC opt-in.

6/8. Distribution: curl | sh, Homebrew, apt/deb, winget (Windows via WSL). Native via QBE on linux-x86_64 / linux-aarch64 / macos-arm64 / macos-x64. Self-host verified.

7/8. Honest about what's missing: no LSP, no package registry, no incremental compile, no code-action API. All v1.1 work, all in the CHANGELOG.

8/8. Install in 60s:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NatesCode/silicon/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
sgl init hello && cd hello && sgl run

Blog post with the full design rationale: [LINK] Repo: https://github.com/NatesCode/silicon

Follow-up posts (drafted but not necessarily published)

  • "This Week in Silicon" cadence post. Sets up the rhythm for v1.1 momentum. Publish week 2 only if the launch attracted enough interest to make it worth maintaining.
  • Strata authoring tutorial. Already in docs/strata-authoring-guide.md; cross-post as a follow-up blog post after the launch noise settles.

What this launch is NOT

No paid promotion. No sponsored posts. No influencer outreach. Silicon's audience is engineers who read primary sources — the writing is the marketing.