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Mojo Basics

Mojo is a new programming language designed for high-performance systems programming that shares similarities with Rust and C++ but is also designed to become a superset of Python. Mojo supports Python syntax and semantics, uses a main function as entry point, and allows importing Python modules while taking Python to a new level with strong typing, memory safety, and compiler technologies.

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178 views

Mojo Basics

Mojo is a new programming language designed for high-performance systems programming that shares similarities with Rust and C++ but is also designed to become a superset of Python. Mojo supports Python syntax and semantics, uses a main function as entry point, and allows importing Python modules while taking Python to a new level with strong typing, memory safety, and compiler technologies.

Uploaded by

Temo
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© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Welcome back to the Mojo Programming language course

Mojo is a robust programming language designed primarily for high-performance


systems programming. It shares many similarities with other systems languages like
Rust and C++, but it’s also designed to become a superset of Python, making many
Python features and concepts easily translatable to Mojo.

For instance, in a REPL environment or Jupyter notebook, you can run top-level code
just like Python:

print("Hello Mojo!")

However, Mojo is not just a new implementation of Python with syntax sugar. It’s an
entirely new language that takes Python to a new level, with systems programming
features, strong type-checking, memory safety, next-generation compiler
technologies, and more, while still being a simple language useful for general-
purpose programming.

Language Basics:

Mojo is a compiled language and can be ahead-of-time (AOT) or just-in-time (JIT)


compiled dot Mojo programs (dot mojo or dot files) require a main() function as
the entry point to the program. For example:

fn main():

var x: Int = 1

x += 1

print(x)

If you’re familiar with Python, you might have expected the function name to be def
main() instead of fn main(). Both actually work in Mojo, but using fn behaves a bit
differently.

Syntax and Semantics:

Mojo supports all of Python’s syntax and semantics. Like Python, Mojo uses line
breaks and indentation to define code blocks (not curly braces), and Mojo supports
all of Python’s control-flow syntax such as if conditions and for loops.

However, Mojo is still a work in progress, so there are some things from Python
that aren’t implemented in Mojo yet. All the missing Python features will arrive in
time, but Mojo already includes many features and capabilities beyond what’s
available in Python.

Mojo is a powerful programming language that’s designed for high-performance


systems programming. It shares many similarities with other systems languages like
Rust and C++, but it’s also designed to become a superset of Python, making many
Python features and concepts easily translatable to Mojo.

Variables:

You can declare variables with var to create a mutable value, or with let to create
an immutable value. If you change var to let in the main() function and run it,
you’ll get a compiler error because let makes the value immutable, so you can’t
increment it. And if you delete var completely, you’ll get an error because fn
functions require explicit variable declarations.
Functions:

Mojo functions can be declared with either fn or def. The fn declaration enforces
strongly-typed and memory-safe behaviors, while def provides Python-style dynamic
behaviors.

Syntax and Semantics:

Mojo supports all of Python’s syntax and semantics. Like Python, Mojo uses line
breaks and indentation to define code blocks (not curly braces), and Mojo supports
all of Python’s control-flow syntax such as if conditions and for loops.

Function Arguments and Returns:

Although types aren’t required for variables declared in the function body, they
are required for arguments and return values for an fn function.

Optional Arguments and Keyword Arguments:

You can also specify argument default values (also known as optional arguments),
and pass values with keyword argument names.

Argument Mutability and Ownership:

Mojo supports full value semantics and enforces memory safety with a robust value
ownership model (similar to the Rust borrow checker). Essentially, that means Mojo
allows you to share references to values (instead of making a copy every time you
pass a value to a function), but doing so requires that you follow Mojo’s ownership
rules (to ensure memory safety).

In Mojo, if you want to give the function ownership of the value and do not want to
make a copy (which can be an expensive operation for some types), then you can add
the ^ “transfer” operator when you pass a variable to the function. The transfer
operator effectively destroys the local variable name—any attempt to call upon it
later causes a compiler error.

Mojo supports full value semantics and enforces memory safety with a robust value
ownership model (similar to the Rust borrow checker). Essentially, that means Mojo
allows you to share references to values (instead of making a copy every time you
pass a value to a function), but doing so requires that you follow Mojo’s ownership
rules (to ensure memory safety) as described in this section.

Structures:

You can build high-level abstractions for types (or “objects”) in a struct. A
struct in Mojo is similar to a class in Python: they both support methods, fields,
operator overloading, decorators for metaprogramming, etc. However, Mojo structs
are completely static—they are bound at compile-time, so they do not allow dynamic
dispatch or any runtime changes to the structure. (Mojo will also support classes
in the future.)

Python Integration:

Although Mojo is still a work in progress and is not a full superset of Python yet,
we’ve built a mechanism to import Python modules as-is, so you can leverage
existing Python code right away. Under the hood, this mechanism uses the CPython
interpreter to run Python code, and thus it works seamlessly with all Python
modules today.
For example, here’s how you can import and use NumPy (you must have Python numpy
installed):

from python import Python

let np = Python.import_module("numpy")

ar = np.arange(15) dot reshape(3, 5)

print(ar)

print(ar dot shape)

Note that Mojo is not a feature-complete superset of Python yet. So, you can’t
always copy Python code and run it in Mojo. For more details on our plans, please
refer to the Mojo roadmap and sharp edges.

Take care When you install Mojo, the installer searches your system for a version
of Python to use with Mojo, and adds the path to the modular.cfg config file. If
you change your Python version or switch virtual environments, Mojo will then be
looking at the wrong Python library, which can cause problems such as errors when
you import Python packages (Mojo says only An error occurred in Python—this is a
separate known issue). The current solution is to override Mojo’s path to the
Python library, using the MOJO_PYTHON_LIBRARY environment variable.

Thanks for your attention, see you in the next lecture.

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