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SFX

A language where 0.1 and 0.2 = 0.3 and Context is first-class

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I've spent the last few weeks building SFX in Rust. It's a programming language experiment focused on context-oriented programming with some unusual design choices.Reality check first:Solo project, 53 commits1 GitHub star xDZero users besides meNo production usageDocumentation is aspirationalMany stdlib modules are minimal stubsWhat actually works:Basic interpreter (tree-walker)Arbitrary precision decimals (0.1 + 0.2 = 0.3)1-based indexing (controversial, I know)Context/Situation system (the main idea)Some file I/O and basic networkingJIT hooks exist but optimization is minimalThe Context idea (asking for feedback on this):Instead of checking if (user.isAdmin) everywhere, you define Situation: AdminMode that overrides methods: Concept: User To GetPermissions: Return "read" Situation: AdminMode Adjust User: To GetPermissions: Return "admin,write,delete" Story: Create User Called Bob Switch on AdminMode Print Bob.GetPermissions # Now returns "admin,write,delete" Objects change behavior based on active situations without mutating state. Is this useful or just overengineered?What's NOT ready:Performance is terrible (haven't optimized anything)Standard lib is mostly TODOsAI features are vaporwareREPL doesn't existNo tooling (LSP, debugger, etc.)Tests exist but coverage is poorMy questions:Is context-oriented programming solving a real problem or creating busywork?Should I focus on making it fast OR making the stdlib useful?Is 1-based indexing a dealbreaker for you?Would arbitrary precision by default bother you for a general-purpose language?I'm not trying to replace anything. This is a learning project that got out of hand.Repo: https://github.com/roriau0422/sfex-langPages: https://roriau0422.github.io/sfex-lang/Honest feedback wanted - including "this is pointless, stop wasting time."

HN · launched Dec 6, 2025 · 11 upvotes (top 47%) · 0 views

Niche: programming languages and interpreters · 161 launches, 2 in the last 7 days ▼ -75% · Explore this niche →

Category and tags

  • Horizontal
  • Dev tools
  • Developer
  • Not AI
  • Hobby / open-source project

Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗

Could you build this?

No Designing and implementing a novel programming language with context-oriented paradigms and non-standard arithmetic semantics requires deep compiler design and language theory expertise.

What it would actually take: A custom programming language requires lexing, parsing (e.g., Chumsky, Nom, or custom Pratt parser in Rust), intermediate representation (IR) design, and a runtime or bytecode VM/LLVM backend. Supporting decimal/rational arithmetic semantics and first-class context-oriented primitives demands novel language mechanics and formal semantics. This necessitates advanced computer science theory and systems programming in Rust.

Discussion

7 comments analyzed.

Competitors mentioned: Go (context passing approach), Java (thread-local variables), Lua (1-based indexing comparison)

Concerns raised: Contexts become global state, hard to debug when context switch is far from method call, 1-based indexing causes awkwardness in low-level tasks (binary file decoding), Context-oriented programming may create busywork rather than solve real problems

Feature requests: Block-scoped contexts with automatic revert on indentation exit, Context.Trace() tool to print context stack and where contexts were set, LSP (Language Server Protocol) support with completion and type-on-hover, JSON output of top-level names/types from compiler for editor tooling

Competitors

Other products that read as similar to this one : 116 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.

Attention rank: #64 of 117 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).

Launched 31 days after the earliest competitor.

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