This project was created to learn V lang basics, as well as common use cases similar to other languages I use regularly. I'll be recording my experiments and what I've learned while treking through V.

Practices

• :star: http.v - HTTP client for SWAPI (star wars api).
• :star: error.v - Error handling practice, includes a couple of other concepts.
• structs.v - Simple structs exercise, includes JSON encoding/decoding.
• io.v - Simple exercises for creating and deleting files + directories, and reading environmental variables.
• maps.v - Simple exercises for maps.
• array.v - Simple exercises for arrays.
• num.v - Simple arithmetic using vlang, solving a euler problem.
• string.v - Simple exercises for strings.

Experiments

Could not complete, many documented features and modules in the standard library are currently unavailable (2/21/19).

• Create a locale package, module, or library and utilize.
• Leverage vpm package manager for 3rd party packages.
• Read from environmental variables.
• Read from a file in a local directory.
• Create a basic DTO (data transfer object).
• Marshal and unmarshal DTO to string and V struct.
• Expose REST endpoints for experiment application.
• Create a service description for my RESt endpoints, following the HATEOAS model.
• Handle multiple different HTTP verbs.
• Dockerize application (include 3rd party packages).
• Create unit tests and execute on a CI/CD platform.
• Connect to a relational database (Postgres).

What I've Learned

• V has very specific use cases, it's not a widely adopted language.
• V is a very new language, new features are being implemented every week.
  • Equality checks for Arrays are still not yet implemented (as of 12/8/19).
  • Maps only currently support string keys.
• V's compiler is incredibly fast, and can be used for prototyping or proof of concept. However the language essentially transpiles down into c, and gcc should be used in production.
• It's similar to Go and is also influenced by Oberon, Rust, Swift.
• V is a compiled language, that compiles down into byte code so it can run on any machine.
• Not garbage collected, similar to Rust memory must be managed at compile time.
• Fast, can compile around 1.2 million lines of code per second per CPU core (of an i5-7500).
• API is not yet that robust, certainly still in it's infancy stages. (using V for everyday tasks may not be viable)
• V is type a statically typed, type strict language.
  • Types are inferred upon instantiation.
  • Variables of a given type cannot be set to a different variable type once intantiated.
  • Arrays and sets are also type strict.
  • Unfortunately, maps are restricted to a single node type they're inferred by.
• Variables are immutable by default, once inferred they cannot be modified.
  • Mutable variables must be denoted by the keyword mut.
• V does not support interfaces like Go, but provides implict structures.
• The language ships with it's own linter similar to prettier (see build steps), as well as unit testing utilities.
• Documentation for v is very lacking, not many resources are available (as of 12/12/19).
  • None of the standard library is covered explicitly in the official docs.
    • The standard library is covered here but does not include db related modules.
  • I've had to read the std lib modules to learn what's possible, which is rather inconvenient considering I'm learning the language.
• V ships with it's own ORM for Postgres in the standard library, with plans to support SQLite and MySQL in the future.
  • Re: v-lang orm
• Because v is preprocessed into c at compile time, interop with C is incredibly easy and seamless.

Closing Thoughts

• V is an incredibly immature programming language with some boastful capability and performance benchmarks to boot.
• A market for v developers does not exist, as it stands the language may never reach maturity.
  • Support was high when the language was announced, but the language's author has failed to hit his promised performance targets multiple times.
• Even in it's infancy, v can be a very productive language. However, at the time of writing this (12/21/19) many modules in the std aren't available or were misdocumented in the official documentation. This is understandable for such a new language, but I wouldn't personally use V until it's been proofed for production.
• Ecosystem is manageable. The official package manager is baked in with the v binary, it's fairly simple to use but is missing some pretty big features that tend to be expected in modern package managers (package config, lock files, versioning).

Resources

v-lang - https://vlang.io/docs

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Copyright (c) 2019 John Nolette Licensed under the MIT License.