The latest articles on DEV Community by Nikolas Skyl (@nikolas_skyl). https://dev.to/nikolas_skyl https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3935119%2F4c704ad4-b394-4c1f-ba3e-85a07aacc29a.png https://dev.to/nikolas_skyl en Nikolas Skyl Sat, 16 May 2026 16:33:16 +0000 https://dev.to/nikolas_skyl/hello-donna-a-new-programming-language-2a5k https://dev.to/nikolas_skyl/hello-donna-a-new-programming-language-2a5k <p>In the past few months, I have been designing and implementing a new programming language called <a href="https://donna-lang.org" rel="noopener noreferrer">Donna</a>.</p> <p>Before I explain more about it, I want to be honest and mention that its development has been heavily assisted by AI.</p> <h2> What's Donna </h2> <p>Donna is a functional, statically typed, self-hosted programming language that compiles to native binaries using <a href="https://c9x.me/compile/" rel="noopener noreferrer">QBE</a> as its compiler backend.</p> <p>Donna’s syntax is inspired mostly by <a href="https://gleam.run" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gleam</a>, with a few Python-like touches.</p> <h2> Bootstrap story </h2> <p>The current compiler is the Stage 2 compiler (there were previously Stage 0 and Stage 1 compilers) and is independent from the previous implementations.</p> <p>Before every release, the compiler is tested and built through GitHub Actions. The release pipeline then generates assembly sources for each supported target and stores them in a separate repository. These generated sources are later used to build the next compiler release, continuing the bootstrap process.</p> <h2> Easy to learn </h2> <p>As mentioned before, Donna takes heavy inspiration from Gleam, so it is relatively easy to pick up and build a small project over a weekend.</p> <p>Donna is intentionally small and aims to stay that way. The vision is:</p> <ul> <li>small language</li> <li>great developer experience</li> <li>native binaries that are easy to distribute</li> </ul> <h2> Where Donna is strong </h2> <p>In my opinion, some of Donna’s strongest points are:</p> <ul> <li>Successfully self-hosted (the Donna compiler is written in Donna)</li> <li>QBE supports the full C ABI, making FFI in Donna very straightforward</li> <li>Clean and pleasant syntax</li> <li>Native binaries</li> <li>Statically typed</li> </ul> <h2> Visit us </h2> <p>If you want to check Donna out, try it, discuss it, contribute, or simply follow the project, you can find it here:</p> <ul> <li>GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/donna-lang" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/donna-lang</a> </li> <li>Website: <a href="https://donna-lang.org" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://donna-lang.org</a> </li> </ul> ai opensource programming productivity