Create your own programming language

$10,000 grand prize

August 10 - 31

Invite your friends to get your language featured on Replit!

We built Repl.it to make it easy to explore and learn languages and programming paradigms. We were, however, surprised by how slow-moving the programming language space seems to be. Given how fast software is growing, shouldn’t we see more innovation in programming languages?

We’re asking the community (you!) to bring fresh and wild ideas to programming languages. Today, we're announcing the programming language jam and a $10,000 prize to a team that designs and prototypes a new language. The winning language will also get added to Repl.it, where anyone can quickly start using it to code. Registration opens August 1st and submissions will be taken from August 10 - 31.

Read more on the blog or repltalk.

In your browser. Repl.it runs fully in your browser, so you can get started coding in seconds. No more ZIPs, PKGs, DMGs and WTFs.

Any OS, any device. Use Repl.it on macOS, Windows, Linux, or any other OS. Have a Chromebook? We’ve got that covered, too.

Hassle-free config. We’ve all spent hours on environment setup. Let’s never do that again.

Learn more about the IDE >_

Grand Prize: $10,000. Winners also get their supported as an official language on Repl.it.

Individual categories and other prizes coming soon

August 1: Registration opens (now open!)

August 10 - August 31: Submissions open

mutliple programming languages illustration

A version of BASIC was built entirely on Replit.

Using NodeJS to build your own programming language

Using Python to build your own programming language

Judges

Mary Rose Cook

@maryrosecook

Engineer at Airtable. Made programming environments, compilers, video games, and a version of Git in JavaScript

Jordan Walke

@jordwalke

Engineer at Facebook. Creator of React.js and the Reason programming language

Dusty DeWeese

@HackerF00

Engineer at Google. Creator of the Popr programming language and a SymbiFlow FPGA toolchain developer

Stephan Boyer

@stepchowfun

Engineer at Google. Programming language theorist, organizer of the Bay Area Haskell Users Group, and early contributor to the Julia programming language

FAQ

Can anyone participate?

Yes! You don’t even need to have any prior experience making languages. You just need your ideas, enthusiasm, and a lot of coffee.

What do I get if I win?

You get $5,000 upfront, and $5,000 over two months to continue working on the language after the jam. We ask you to try to get to a usable version of the language to be added to Repl.it in three months after the jam.

Do I have to code it on Repl.it?

During the jam, we ask all participants to code and submit their projects on Repl.it to make it easy for our judges to run your project, and for our users to interact and potentially fork your language. We ask that you make one demo repl that it’s easy to run and try. After the jam, it’s up to you where you want to finish coding the language.

What kind of language should it be?

Any kind -- it could be dynamic, compiled, visual, whatever! We’re particularly interested in fresh ideas. So the only criteria are that it’s a language you can program in :)

Can I remix or improve on an existing language?

Yes, as long as you're adding original ideas and putting an effort to meaningfully change or improve the language.

Can I make a Domain Specific Language (DSL)?

Yes. As long as the DSL deviates from the host language in constructs and syntax. For example GraphQL is useful/interesting on its own despite being embedded in JavaScript

Can I make a non-turing complete language?

Yes, as long as it's useful and not purely academic.

What if Repl.it doesn't support the tooling that I need?

Please send a pull request to add it to our base image Polygott. For example Paul Bone, submitted this PR to add Mercury to Repl.it and was merged quickly.