Tolk vs FunC: in short

Tolk is much more similar to TypeScript and Kotlin than to C and Lisp. But it still gives you full control over TVM assembler, since it has a FunC kernel inside.

1. Functions are declared via fun, get methods via get, variables via var (and val for immutable), putting types on the right; parameter types are mandatory; return type can be omitted (auto inferred), as well as for locals; specifiers inline and others are @ attributes

global storedV: int;

fun parseData(cs: slice): cell {
    var flags: int = cs.loadMessageFlags();
    ...
}

@inline
fun sum(a: int, b: int) {   // auto inferred int
    val both = a + b;       // same
    return both;
}

get currentCounter(): int { ... }

2. No impure, it's by default, compiler won't drop user function calls
3. Not recv_internal and recv_external, but onInternalMessage and onExternalMessage
4. 2+2 is 4, not an identifier; identifiers are alpha-numeric; use naming const OP_INCREASE instead of const op::increase; cell and slice are valid identifiers (not keywords)
5. Logical operators AND &&, OR ||, NOT ! are supported
6. Syntax improvements:
   • ;; comment → // comment
   • {- comment -} → /* comment */
   • #include → import, with a strict rule "import what you use"
   • ~ found → !found (for true/false only, obviously) (true is -1, like in FunC)
   • v = null() → v = null
   • null?(v) → v == null, same for builder_null? and others
   • ~ null?(v) → c != null
   • throw(excNo) → throw excNo
   • catch(_, _) → catch
   • catch(_, excNo) → catch(excNo)
   • throw_unless(excNo, cond) → assert(cond, excNo)
   • throw_if(excNo, cond) → assert(!cond, excNo)
   • return () → return
   • do ... until (cond) → do ... while (!cond)
   • elseif → else if
   • ifnot (cond) → if (!cond)
7. A function can be called even if declared below; forward declarations not needed; the compiler at first does parsing, and then it does symbol resolving; there is now an AST representation of source code
8. stdlib functions renamed to verbose clear names, camelCase style; it's now embedded, not downloaded from GitHub; it's split into several files; common functions available always, more specific available with import "@stdlib/tvm-dicts", IDE will suggest you; here is a mapping
9. No ~ tilda methods; cs.loadInt(32) modifies a slice and returns an integer; b.storeInt(x, 32) modifies a builder; b = b.storeInt() also works, since it not only modifies, but returns; chained methods work identically to JS, they return self; everything works exactly as expected, similar to JS; no runtime overhead, exactly same Fift instructions; custom methods are created with ease; tilda ~ does not exist in Tolk at all; more details here
10. Clear and readable error messages on type mismatch
11. bool type support
12. Indexed access tensorVar.0 and tupleVar.0 support
13. Nullable types T?, null safety, smart casts, operator !

Tooling around

• JetBrains plugin exists
• VS Code extension exists
• WASM wrapper for blueprint exists
• And even a converter from FunC to Tolk exists

Where to go next

Tolk vs FunC: in detail