Unofficial Bend Programming Language Guide

Welcome to the Unofficial Guide to the Bend Programming Language, a community-driven resource dedicated to helping you navigate and master Bend, the massively parallel high-level programming language. This guide is designed as a comprehensive resource for programmers of all levels, from beginners to advanced users, who want to explore the capabilities of Bend and harness its power for parallel computing.

This guide is still WORK-IN-PROGRESS. Please feel free to contribute.

About Bend

Bend is a cutting-edge programming language developed by HigherOrderCO to run on massively parallel hardware, such as GPUs, with a high degree of expressiveness and ease of use. Built upon the Rust programming language, Bend offers a familiar syntax to Rustaceans while abstracting the complexities of parallel programming. This innovative language enables developers to write code that scales automatically with the number of available cores, without the need for explicit parallel annotations.

What's Inside

This guide is structured into detailed chapters, each focusing on different aspects of the Bend language, such as setting up the development environment, writing parallel-ready code, memory management, GPU programming, and more.

Through these chapters, you will learn about:

• Installing and setting up Bend
• Basic to advanced programming concepts in Bend
• Data structures and pattern matching
• Writing and optimizing parallel algorithms
• Memory and error management in Bend
• System interactions and command-line tools
• Real-world applications of Bend in software development

Who This Guide is For

Whether you are new to parallel programming or an experienced developer looking to expand your skillset, this guide has something for you. It's tailored to help:

• New programmers understand the fundamental concepts of Bend.
• Intermediate developers enhance their skills with advanced topics.
• Seasoned professionals apply Bend to real-world parallel computing problems.

How to Use This Guide

Each chapter is designed to be self-contained, allowing readers to jump to topics of interest or follow along sequentially for a comprehensive learning experience. Code examples, best practices, and exercises are provided throughout to reinforce learning and encourage hands-on experimentation.

Community Contributions

This guide is an open-source project hosted on GitHub, and we welcome contributions from the Bend community. Whether it's fixing a typo, improving explanations, or adding new examples, your contributions help make this resource better for everyone.

We use mdBook which generates the documentation website using markdown files. (Another awesome project from Rust community ❤️)

To contribute, please:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Make your changes and commit them to your fork.
3. Submit a pull request with a clear description of your improvements.

License

This guide is released under the Apache-2.0 license. See LICENSE.md for full details.

Acknowledgments

This guide would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of the Bend language creators, contributors, and the vibrant community around it. Special thanks to everyone who has contributed their knowledge, time, and effort to support and grow the Bend ecosystem.