tiko lang FAQ

FAQ

What is tiko? A compiled, statically typed programming language, with its own compiler, type system and runtime. See What Is tiko.

Is tiko a BASIC? No. Its syntax comes from the most readable family of languages ever designed for people, and it keeps that readability on purpose: end function and next tell a reviewer which block just closed, with no brace counting and no indentation errors. Everything underneath is tiko's own. One consequence is that it still compiles FreeBASIC code, which is what Compatibility is about.

Is tiko a fork of another compiler? No. It is a separate compiler with its own frontend, its own typed IR and an LLVM backend. See What Is tiko.

Will my existing FreeBASIC code compile? If it is #lang "fb" code, that is the aim. The known exceptions are listed on Compatibility. They include qb/fblite/deprecated dialect code and inline ASM, each refused with a diagnostic. Code that must know it is being built by tiko tests #ifdef __TIKO_COMPILER__.

Do I have to build anything? Normally not. Toolchains are published ready-built as GitHub Releases -- the newest one titled tiko toolchains -- with one archive per host: tiko-windows-x86_64-<commit>.zip, tiko-linux-x86_64-<commit>.tar.gz and tiko-macos-arm64-<commit>.tar.gz. Unpack the one for your host -- it holds one directory, tiko-lang/, with the compiler and the tkEdit editor -- and it is ready; the only other thing it needs is clang, to run (see Which backends? below). Building tiko from its source is for working on the compiler itself: bash build/package.sh --verify builds a toolchain for your host, compiling tiko with the seed -- the earlier tiko release sh seed/fetch-seed.sh fetches. See Quick Start.

Which targets are supported?

• windows-x86_64: the default on Windows, and it needs no Visual Studio.
• linux-x86_64: the default on Linux.
• macos-arm64: the default on macOS (Apple Silicon, macOS 13 or newer). Programs for it link on a Mac, because the link needs Apple's linker and SDK; elsewhere -c compiles an object.

ARM64 means macOS only: there is no Linux or Windows ARM64 target. -m32 and -target win32 are refused.

Which backends? One: tiko emits LLVM IR and runs clang. There is no -gen switch. clang 18 or newer must be installed; tiko takes TIKO_CLANG first, then the default install path, then clang on PATH. See LLVM Backend.

Can I use inline ASM? Not in tiko. It is refused with TKO0407 rather than miscompiled.

Are generics macros? No. tiko builds one concrete type per distinct type-argument list, checked like any other type. See Generics.

Can I put constraints on a type parameter? No. The language has none. This is why IndexOf/Contains and the whole sort library are free procedures rather than Array members.

Do the containers get special compiler treatment? None at all. Array, Map, Set, LinkedList, OrderedMap and OrderedSet are ordinary library code, written on top of generics, the iterator protocol and for each.

What does a type need to be usable with FOR EACH? GetIterator( ) returning something with IsValid( ), Value( ) and MoveNext( ). That is the whole contract — structural, with no base class, interface or registration. See Iterator Protocol.

Why USTRING when WSTRING exists?

• WSTRING is 2 bytes on Windows and 4 on Linux and macOS. It is fixed-length, and appending walks to the terminator, which is O(n²).
• USTRING is dynamic and UTF-16 on every target. It keeps its length in the descriptor, so LEN is O(1) and appending is amortised O(1).
• Conversion to and from STRING is UTF-8 on every target, instead of going through the C locale.

Does the new date/time library replace datetime.bi? No. std/chrono ships alongside it, and the two meet at FromSerial / Serial.

Are goroutines as cheap as Go's? No. spawn copies the call's arguments at the spawn point and queues the call for a pool of operating-system worker threads: tiko-rt's scheduler, lib/rt/src/thread/sched.tiko. No green threads run underneath.

Where do I report a bug or send a patch? https://github.com/PaulSquires/tiko-lang/issues

Where does the language reference in this wiki come from? The keyword, statement, operator and function pages are the FreeBASIC 1.20.0 manual, reproduced under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3, and they describe the dialect tiko compiles. tiko's own pages are written for this wiki. See License.