If you keep yourself updated with the recent news and updates on niche software then you might have heard the word V programming. V programming is a hobby-project programming language which was mainly created to develop a 300 KB desktop application called Volt.

The language quickly got fame out of its competitors as it provides un-matched speed and safety. As the V programming language is very tiny so, the language is very swift and agile in nature. 

So a question must strike your head that exactly how much fast is it? Well, the language has the power to compile around 1.2 million lines of code per second per CPU core. Now, that’s quite fast!

The topic is that V programming is now open-source. Now the main question is what can you expect from it. We will get to that discussion but, first, you should know important facts about the V programming Language and what open source means.  

V Programming Language- dynamic speed and security.

Just like I have said earlier V programming language was initially created to develop a very small desktop application Volt. Volt is a messaging desktop application carrying a file size of only 400KB. As the app size is small therefore it will perform much faster. 

The short docs formats make the V simple and easily understandable. But apart from this, the V programming Language offers more features that are worth mentioning.

1. Safety:

To make the language more secure and less vulnerable the developers have included some strict security policies on the language.

  • It does not allow global variables.
  • An initial value must be included before calling or including any variables.
  • By default the variables are immutable. To explicitly specify otherwise you have to use “mut”. 
  • No variable is allowed with a name that is already in use in the parent body.

2. Memory: 

In the case of memory management, the V programming language is more like Rust (another programming language similar to V). V provides memory management in compilation time. 

But the problem is, this only works when you are doing basic tasks. In the case of more complex tasks, manual management is required.

The developer of the V language has stated that memory management is not secured enough and it needs more improvements in the section of memory management.

3. Error Handling:

In V language there is a combined Option/Result type. You can just add “?” to the return type. Follow the below example.

fn find_user_by_id(id int, r Repo) ?User { 

    for user in r.users {

        if user.id == id {

            // V automatically wraps this into an option type  

            return user 

        } 

    } 

    return error(‘User $id not found’) 

}

In this example, the function returns the “?User”. While calling the function this can be shifted to the next level by calling “find_user_by_id(id, repo)?”.  This means that the propagation errors do not require any try-catch exception model.

Apart from the Volt app, several projects are also build using the  V programming language like, Vid– it is a 200KB code editor platform and Vtalk– a forum used to power the V blog.

The Concept of Open Source:

If you can customize, modify and share software or any application then it is called open source software or open-source language and it is designed to access publicly. Open-Source software is a software with a source code that can access and modify and customize according to end-user needs.

Source code of a software is the code that a developer includes in software to modify and manipulate the working and functionality of the software. Through the open-source concept, developers can add features, fix errors and many more.

Every software has source code. But the access is only given to the person, the team who developed that software. These types of software are called “ proprietary” or “closed source” software.

Enough of initial knowledge! I think now everything is making sense to you. Let’s focus on the topic that we are going to discuss today.

Things to expect from V Programming Language

As I have said before V got quick fame after it’s release for its unmatched features and specifications. Users have a lot of expectations from this language such as.

Fast Compilation Performance:

Mainly the V language gained a lot of support because of this entity. As said before V can deliver a compilation speed up to 1.2 million lines of code per second per CPU. It is only possible with the help of  the technology of direct machine code generation and strong modularity.

Though the concept of direct machine code is in its early stages that is right now it only supports x64/Macth-O, but the developer of the V programming language stated that the direct machine code concept will soon reach its heights in future.

Safety and Security:

Just as discussed earlier, the V Programming Language provides top-notch security facilities. The language has no global variables, undefined values, undefined behavior, variable shadowing, etc therefore it can be considered as an ideal language 

The language supports immutable variables and pure functions by default. In the future, Generics will be also included in the language.

Performance:

With a built-in serialization without runtime reflection and a minimal amount of allocations, V Programming Language is at its best on the base of performance. 

The language can also compile native binaries without any dependencies.

Small-scale Compiler:

The entire size of the library and the application file is only 400KB. In comparison with its competitors space and build time required by the V language is very very less.

You can build the language in just 0.4s. Yes, that is very much true and it is that fast!

C/C++ Translation:

Yes, the developer has given the option of converting your V language to C or C++ programming languages to the end-users. But this feature in its early stages and will be stable with the course of time.

FAQs:

  1. What is Volt Chatting App?

A: The V Programming language is used to create a desktop messaging application known as Volt Chatting App or Volt Messaging App. The file size of the app is 400KB only and it has a very fast performance  

Right now the Volt application is only for Mac only.

  1. What are the most popular open-source programming languages?

A: An open-source programming language allows the end-user to customize, modify and share the programming file according to their needs. It has no restrictions for the end-users and designed that way so that poeple can use the language as per their own desire. 

Some of the most popular open-source programming languages are,

  • JavaScript
  • Python
  • PHP
  • Java
  • CSS
  • C++
  • Go
  • C