Introduction to Ferret

Ferret is a systems language with explicit ownership, predictable control flow, and practical tooling.

Ownership Model

Ferret makes ownership visible in the type:

• T plain value
• *T owning pointer
• &T shared borrow
• &mut T mutable borrow
• ^T / ^const T raw pointer forms (unsafe)

Core Language Features

• structs, enums, unions, interfaces
• optionals (?T) and error unions (E!T)
• attached methods (fn Type::Method(...))
• arrays ([N]T), slices ([]T, []mut T), tuples ((A, B, C))
• module imports with import "pkg/path"

Tooling

• ferret check for type-checking
• ferret run to build and execute
• ferret test for unit test functions
• built-in package manager ferret get

Quick Example

type Mode enum {
    debug,
    release,
}

fn Label(mode: Mode) -> str {
    if mode == Mode::release {
        return "release"
    }
    return "debug"
}

fn main() {
    let mode = Mode::debug
    println("mode:")
    println(Label(mode))
}