The Tengo Language

Tengo is a small, dynamic, fast, secure script language for Go.

Tengo is fast and secure because it’s compiled/executed as bytecode on stack-based VM that’s written in native Go.

/* The Tengo Language */

fmt := import("fmt")

each := func(seq, fn) {
    for x in seq { fn(x) }
}

sum := func(init, seq) {
    each(seq, func(x) { init += x })
    return init
}

fmt.println(sum(0, [1, 2, 3]))   // "6"
fmt.println(sum("", [1, 2, 3]))  // "123"

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Features

Simple and highly readable Syntax
- Dynamic typing with type coercion
- Higher-order functions and closures
- Immutable values
- Garbage collection
Securely Embeddable and Extensible
Compiler/runtime written in native Go (no external deps or cgo)
Executable as a standalone language / REPL
Use cases: rules engine, state machine, gaming, data pipeline, transpiler

Benchmark

	fib(35)	fibt(35)	Type
Go	`48ms`	`3ms`	Go (native)
Tengo	`2,349ms`	`5ms`	VM on Go
Lua	`1,416ms`	`3ms`	Lua (native)
go-lua	`4,402ms`	`5ms`	Lua VM on Go
GopherLua	`4,023ms`	`5ms`	Lua VM on Go
Python	`2,588ms`	`26ms`	Python (native)
starlark-go	`11,126ms`	`6ms`	Python-like Interpreter on Go
gpython	`15,035ms`	`4ms`	Python Interpreter on Go
goja	`5,089ms`	`5ms`	JS VM on Go
otto	`68,377ms`	`11ms`	JS Interpreter on Go
Anko	`92,579ms`	`18ms`	Interpreter on Go

* fib(35): Fibonacci(35)
* fibt(35): tail-call version of Fibonacci(35)
* Go does not read the source code from file, while all other cases do
* See here for commands/codes used

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The Tengo Language

Features

Benchmark

References

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