# Storm

Download Storm
Latest version: 0.7.5-3+debian (2026-04-01)

Storm is a programming language platform with a strong focus on extensibility. Storm itself is mostly a framework for creating languages rather than a complete compiler. The framework is designed to make easy to implement languages that can be extended with new syntax and semantics. Of course, Storm comes bundled with a few languages (most importantly Basic Storm), but these are separate from the core and could be implemented as libraries in the future. Since these languages are implemented in Storm, they allow users to create their own syntax extensions as separate libraries. Furthermore, Storm allows languages to interact with each other freely and mostly seamlessly.

Aside from extensibility, Storm is implemented as an interactive compiler. This means that Storm is designed to be executed in the background while programs are being developed. As the compiler is running in the background, it is able to provide information about the program being developed to help the developer, much like an IDE. Currently, it is possible to run Storm as a language server that provides syntax highlighting for all supported languages and language extensions to an editor, such as Emacs. In the future, the language server should be able to provide more semantic information as well. More information on the language server can be found here.

The example below illustrates the capabilities of Storm:

    use sql;

    // Database declaration of a database for storing
    // authors and their books.
    DATABASE ExampleDB {
        TABLE authors(
            id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
            name TEXT
        );

        TABLE books(
            id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
            author INTEGER,
            title TEXT
        );
    }

    Str[] getBooksBy(ExampleDB db, Str authorName) {
        Str[] result;
        WITH db {
            // Query the database:
            var query = SELECT books.title FROM books
                JOIN authors ON authors.id == books.author
                WHERE authors.name == authorName;
            // Extract the result:
            for (row in query) {
                result.push(row.books.title);
            }
        }
        return result;
    }

The example uses the SQL library, which provides a syntax extension to Basic Storm that allows treating SQL queries as expressions. Together with the database declaration at the top of the example, this allows the SQL library to type-check queries. The type information is also used to make it possible to extract the results in a convenient and type-safe way. Furthermore, since the extension knows which parameters originate from variables in the code, it is able to automatically use prepared statements to avoid problems with SQL injection.

## Getting Started

If you are interested in Storm and want to learn more, the getting started page is a good place to start. Apart from the getting started section, this page also contains the manual for Storm among other things.

- Getting Started

  This part of the manual aims to introduce Storm by providing step-by-step instructions that illustrate how to use the system. These instructions start simple by providing detailed instructions on how to install Storm and run programs in Storm. From there, it gradually builds up to more advanced examples that illustrate the unique features of Storm. These examples are not ment to be complete, but rather to provide a starting point for exploring the system further through the reference sections of the manual and the built-in documentation.

- Language Reference

  The language reference provides a detailed description of the different languages used in Storm. It starts by introducing the ideas behind Storm itself in a language-agnostic setting, and then continues to describe the general purpose language Basic Storm, the Syntax Language, and the intermediate representation in more detail.

- Library Reference

  To complement the language reference, the library reference covers the library functions that are available. This covers both the standard library provided by Storm, the interfaces provided to aid in creating languages, and other libraries that are included with the system.

- Programs

  A number of larger programs have been developed in Storm, and are included with Storm by default. They are documented in this part of the manual.

- Downloads

  This page lists the binary releases of Storm in a way that is easy to access.

## Contact

If you have any questions or requests regarding Storm, please contact me at info@storm-lang.org.