The Bear Programming Language

fn main() {
    areas := ['game', 'web', 'tools', 'science', 'systems',
              'embedded', 'drivers', 'GUI', 'mobile']
    for area in areas {
        println('Hello, ${area} developers!')
    }
}

Learn the entire language over a weekend. Only one way to do things.

Install from source

Build Bear in seconds. No dependencies needed.

$ git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/bearlanguageorg/bear
$ cd bear && make

Why Bear?

Everything you need in a modern language, without the complexity.

Safe by default

Bounds checking, immutable variables, no null, no undefined behavior, and mandatory error handling with Option/Result types.

Blazing fast

Compiles ~110k lines/sec with Clang, ~500k with native/TCC backends. Self-compiles in under a second. As fast as C.

Simple to learn

Learn the entire language over a weekend. Clean syntax with only one way to do things. If you know Go, you already know ~80% of Bear.

Cross-platform

Native binaries on Linux, macOS, Windows, BSD, and more. Easy cross-compilation without extra toolchains.

Built-in libraries

Web framework, ORM, JSON, HTTP, coroutines, and a graphics library in the standard library. No dependency hell.

Flexible memory

GC by default, manual via -gc none, arena allocation via -prealloc, or autofree. Choose what fits your project.

Small compiler,
big speed

Bear can be bootstrapped in under a second by compiling its C-translated source with a simple cc bear.c. No libraries or dependencies needed.

The entire compiler fits in under 20 MB — compared to Go (525 MB), Rust (30 GB), or Clang (90 GB).

<1s Bootstrap

~110k Lines/sec

<20MB Compiler

// Building Bear from source
$ git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/bearlang/bear
$ cd bear
$ make

// Self-compile
$ time ./bear self

// Run a program
$ ./bear run hello.v

Bear vs other languages

The best of all worlds, without the tradeoffs.

	Bear	Go	Rust	C
Simple syntax	✓	✓	—	—
Fast compilation	✓	✓	—	✓
Memory safety	✓	✓	✓	—
C-level performance	✓	—	✓	✓
Zero-cost C interop	✓	—	—	✓
Easy cross-compilation	✓	✓	✓	—
Bootstrappable	✓	—	—	—
Optional GC	✓	—	✓	✓

The BearProgramming Language