Migration Guide

Migrating from other languages to Toka? Here's what you need to know.

From Rust

Ownership model:

• Rust: Borrow checker with 'a lifetimes
• Toka: Hat Principle with ^ syntax — no lifetime annotations needed

Error handling:

• Rust: Result<T, E> with ? operator
• Toka: Same Result<T, E> with ! operator

Pattern matching:

• Rust: match with exhaustive checking
• Toka: Same match with wildcard _

Traits:

• Rust: trait Foo { fn bar(&self); }
• Toka: pub trait Foo { fn bar(self); } with @ syntax

From Go

Error handling:

• Go: if err != nil everywhere
• Toka: Result/Option with ! operator — cleaner and safer

Concurrency:

• Go: Goroutines + channels
• Toka: Tasks + MPSC channels

Interfaces:

• Go: Implicit interface satisfaction
• Toka: Explicit trait implementation with @ syntax

From C

Pointers:

• C: Raw pointers * with no safety
• Toka: Tracked hats ^ with PAL Checker

Memory:

• C: Manual malloc/free
• Toka: Automatic compile-time memory management

Build:

• C: Makefile / CMakeLists.txt
• Toka: package.tk (declarative)

From Python

Dynamic vs Static:

• Python: Dynamic typing, runtime errors
• Toka: Static typing, compile-time safety

Performance:

• Python: Interpreted, slow
• Toka: Compiled, native speed (via LLVM)

Quick Syntax Reference