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The Sushi Tutorial

Welcome. This is a hands-on, start-to-finish guide to Sushi — a small compiled language with static types, explicit error handling, compile-time memory safety, and an LLVM backend.

Who this is for

You already write code. This tutorial assumes you know a mainstream language such as Python (and maybe a little Java), and it leans on that intuition: where Sushi does something differently, we say so explicitly and explain why. You do not need any prior experience with systems languages, LLVM, or manual memory management.

What you'll learn

We start from the absolute basics and build up, one chapter at a time, to every major feature the language has:

  • Foundations — variables, types, control flow, functions, strings
  • Safety — Result<T, E>, Maybe<T>, error propagation with ??
  • Data — arrays, structs, enums, pattern matching
  • Abstraction — generics, perks (traits), extension methods
  • Systems — RAII, references and borrow checking, Own<T>
  • Library — List<T>, HashMap<K, V>, and the standard library
  • Interop — variadic functions, calling C, foreign pointers, building libraries
  • Functions as values — first-class functions, closures, and higher-order combinators (map/filter/fold/compose)

How to read this

Read the chapters in order — each one builds on the last. Every code example on these pages is a real, complete program that was compiled and run to produce the output you see. You can copy any example, save it as a .sushi file, and run it yourself.

Running an example

Every example is a standalone program. To compile and run one:

./sushic mostly-harmless.sushi
./mostly-harmless

The first command produces a native executable named after the source file; the second runs it. If you haven't set up the compiler yet, start with the Getting Started chapter.

A note on flavor

Sushi has a sense of humor, and so do its docs. Examples lean on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy — expect Arthur, Ford, Marvin, the occasional towel, and the number 42. The traditional first program prints "Mostly Harmless" rather than "Hello, World".

Ready? Let's begin with Getting Started.