Developer Builds Willow, an Experimental Native Language with GC and Async Runtime

A solo developer has created Willow, an experimental statically typed programming language that compiles to native code using Cranelift. The language combines class-based object-oriented programming, algebraic data types, pattern matching, and a custom stackless async runtime with task scheduling and channels. Unlike Go, Java, or Rust, Willow aims to blend native ahead-of-time compilation with automatic memory management and structured concurrency in a single design. It features a generational garbage collector where major marking runs concurrently and async frames are managed by the GC itself. Willow is not yet production-ready, with a small standard library and an unstable ABI, but it can already run non-trivial programs and produce meaningful benchmarks.
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