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Chukwuemeka Igbokwe
Chukwuemeka Igbokwe

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Chuks, A New Programming Language That Outperforms Go on HTTP Throughput

#programming #performance #webdev #softwareengineering

Hi i've been building a programming language called Chuks, and it just hit v0.0.6. Here's why I think it's worth your attention.

What is Chuks?
Chuks bridges scripting-language simplicity with compiled-language performance. Think TypeScript's developer experience, Go's deployment model, and a runtime that's faster than both.

It ships as a single binary with a VM, AOT compiler, built-in HTTP server, 4 SQL database drivers, structured concurrency, and 30+ standard library modules — all included, no packages required.

import { createServer, Request, Response } from "std/http"

var app = createServer()

app.get("/", function(req: Request, res: Response) {
    res.json('{"status": "ok"}')
})

app.listen(3000)
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That's a production-grade, multi-threaded HTTP server in 8 lines.

The Numbers

Chuks Performance Benchmark

Chuks beats Go on Fibonacci, matches it on N-Body, and is 2–5x faster than Java and Node.js across the board. It's 60–255x faster than Python.

How?
Chuks compiles to Go source via AOT, then to native machine code. The AOT compiler produces devirtualized method dispatch, typed arithmetic, and zero-cost nil checks — code that's nearly identical to hand-written Go.

It handles requests across all CPU cores by default.

What Makes Chuks Different
Dual execution modes. Run with chuks run (VM for rapid development) or build with chuks build (AOT for production). No other language offers both.

True structured concurrency. spawn runs any function in parallel. async/await handles I/O. Parent task cancellation automatically cascades to children — no leaked Promises, no dangling goroutines.

async function handleRequest(req: Request, res: Response):Task<void>{
    var userTask: Task<any> = spawn fetchUser(req.params["id"])
    var ordersTask: Task<any> = spawn fetchOrders(req.params["id"])

    var user: any = await userTask
    var orders: any = await ordersTask

    res.json({ "user": user, "orders": orders })
}
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Batteries included. The standard library covers HTTP, JSON, JWT, crypto, validation, rate limiting, UUID, regex, logging, channels, TCP/TLS, file I/O, and 4 built-in SQL drivers (SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL).

Growing package ecosystem. Redis, Kafka, RabbitMQ, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, gRPC, NATS, WebSocket, S3, SMTP, GraphQL, OpenAPI, OAuth, OpenTelemetry, cron, CSV, XML, YAML — all available as packages.

Tooling from day one. VS Code extension with syntax highlighting, LSP, and snippets. Built-in debugger (DAP). REPL. Self-updating CLI with chuks upgrade.

Get Started

# Install (macOS/Linux/Windows)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chuks-programming-language/releases/main/install.sh | bash

# Create a project
chuks new my_app
cd my_app
chuks run src/main.chuks

# Build for production
chuks build src/main.chuks
./build/main.chuks.bin
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X: @Chukslang
Website: chuks.org
GitHub: github.com/chuks-programming-language

Chuks is still early (v0.0.6), but the foundation is solid — 157 tests passing, cross-platform releases (macOS, Linux, Windows), and real-world projects already running on it.

I'd love feedback. What would you want from a language like this?

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