Fantom is a modern programming language designed with a focus on portability, scalability, and simplicity. Created in the mid-2000s by Brian Frank and Andy Frank, Fantom was developed to address the increasing complexity of building applications that need to run on different platforms, including the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), .NET's Common Language Runtime (CLR), and JavaScript environments. The language's goal is to provide developers with a platform-independent way to write software that can run across a variety of environments without modification.
One of the unique features of Fantom is its ability to compile to multiple backends, specifically JVM, .NET, and JavaScript, allowing developers to write code once and deploy it on a wide range of platforms. This capability makes Fantom highly versatile for building cross-platform applications. In addition to its portability, the language includes a well-designed, built-in library and strong support for concurrency, making it useful for developing scalable systems and web applications.
Fantom emphasizes simplicity and productivity, aiming to reduce the verbosity seen in other languages like Java while maintaining the performance needed for large-scale applications. The syntax of Fantom takes inspiration from several programming languages, incorporating a mix of Java, C#, and JavaScript conventions, making it relatively easy to pick up for developers familiar with these languages.
Here's an example of a simple Fantom program that prints "Hello, World!":
class HelloWorld {
static Void main() {
echo("Hello, World!")
}
}In this example, the main method is the entry point of the program, and the echo function is used to output text to the console, similar to System.out.println in Java or print in Python.
Fantom has several features that make it appealing for modern software development. These include strong support for immutability, which helps developers write safer and more reliable code, especially in concurrent programming. It also includes a flexible type system that combines static and dynamic typing, allowing developers to write both strongly-typed and dynamically-typed code as needed.
The language’s emphasis on ease of use and cross-platform capabilities makes it well-suited for developing cloud applications, web services, and mobile apps. It is also useful in environments where developers need to target multiple platforms from a single codebase, reducing the overhead of maintaining separate codebases for different platforms.
While Fantom is not as widely adopted as some of its contemporaries, its niche appeal lies in its ability to simplify cross-platform development and its clean, modern syntax. The language has a growing community of developers and continues to evolve as new platforms and technologies emerge. Its strong support for concurrency, portability, and developer productivity makes it a compelling choice for certain types of scalable and portable applications.