Easl

Easl (Enhanced Abstraction Shader Language) is a Lisp-syntax shader language that compiles to WGSL, the WebGPU shading language. It keeps everything WGSL offers and adds many features that have previously been unavailable in shader languages:

• Expression-based syntax let, if, and match produce values and can appear wherever a value can.
• Sum types: enums whose variants carry data, with exhaustive match.
• Closures and higher-order functions. Functions passed as arguments are inlined; functions stored in arrays or structs are dispatched at runtime.
• Generics for functions, structs, and enums, specialized at compile time.

Easl can also be run on the CPU, and the CPU runtime can open windows, dispatch shaders, and generate real-time audio. When using the CPU runtime, memory is seamlessly shared between the CPU and GPU without the need for any explicit synchronization code.

Using these docs#

• Language guide describes the basic language features like syntax, the type system, control flow, and modules
• Writing shaders describes shader-specific functionality
• The CPU runtime demonstrates the CPU side of the language, including the process of spawning windows, dispatching shaders, responding to user input, and generating audio.
• Builtin reference and the searchable function index are useful for seeing all of the builtin functions available in easl.
• Worked example: Raymarching is a walkthrough that uses easl to build a raymarcher. It shows off a lot of easl's unique features and is a great way to get started with the language.
• Playground lets you write easl in your browser and run it live, with types on hover and errors as you type. Every example on these pages that's a whole program has a link to open it there.

Tooling#

• easl: the compiler, as a Rust crate.
• easl_cli: easl run program.easl compiles and runs a program.
• easl_lsp: a work-in-progress language server, with a VS Code client.

Easl is a work in progress; expect breaking changes.