Description #
Pony is an actor-model, object-oriented programming language designed for writing high-performance, safe concurrent applications. It uses reference capabilities to ensure data race freedom without a garbage collector.
History #
Created by Sylvan Clebsch, Luke Gorrie, and others, Pony’s first public release was in 2015. It focuses on safe concurrency, high performance, and correctness by design, suitable for modern systems programming.
Hello World Code #
actor Main
new create(env: Env) =>
env.out.print("Hello, World!")How to Run #
Option 1: Online
Try Pony online at Try Pony Playground.
Option 2: Local
- Install Pony compiler from https://www.ponylang.io/
- Compile and run:
ponyc hello.pony
./helloKey Concepts #
- Actor-model concurrency for safe parallelism
- Reference capabilities for memory safety without GC
- Object-oriented with traits and classes
- Strong static typing with type inference
- High performance compiled code
- No global mutable state allowed
- Efficient message passing between actors
- Built-in support for async programming
- Designed for modern multicore systems
- Growing open-source community
Try It Online #
Fun Facts #
- Pony guarantees data-race freedom at compile time.
- It has no garbage collector, using reference capabilities for safety.
- Pony’s actor model is inspired by Erlang but with static typing.
- It’s suitable for applications requiring concurrency and low latency.
- Pony is used in systems where safety and performance are critical.
