99 Bottles of Beer in Wave

One of the most classic programming exercises in the world is the “99 Bottles of Beer“ song.

It’s a silly repetitive tune, but in programming, it has become something more: a traditional way to demonstrate loops, conditions, and string formatting across different languages.

If you’ve ever visited 99-bottles-of-beer.net, you’ll see this exercise implemented in over 1,500 programming languages — from C, Java, and Python to more obscure esolangs.

Now, it’s Wave’s turn. 🚀

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The Wave Implementation

Here’s how the “99 Bottles of Beer“ program looks in Wave:

fun main() {
    var i: i32 = 99;

    while (i > 1) {
        println("{} bottles of beer on the wall, {} bottles of beer\nTake one down and pass it around, {} bottles of beer on the wall", i, i, i - 1);
        i = i - 1;
    }
    println("1 bottle of beer on the wall, 1 bottle of beer\nTake one down and pass it around, no more bottles of beer on the wall");
}

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Why This Matters

At first glance, this might look like just another small code snippet. But for a new programming language, it’s a symbolic milestone:

• Loops (while) are working correctly

• Conditionals and final case handling are functional

• String formatting with {} placeholders is supported

• Type system enforces explicit declaration (i: i32)

In other words: Wave is no longer just parsing tokens. It’s running real logic.

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What’s Next for Wave

Currently, my main focus is on struct support and IR (Intermediate Representation) generation.
The parser and AST are already complete, and now it’s about lowering everything into working IR.

This “99 Bottles of Beer” example is a fun checkpoint — but the real challenge ahead is making Wave handle complex features like user-defined data structures, memory handling, and eventually moving away from LLVM into our own Whale toolchain.

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Final Thoughts

Every programming language has its “Hello, World!” moment.
For Wave, this 99 Bottles of Beer program feels like the next milestone — proof that the language can already express something playful, repetitive, and dynamic.

It may be just a silly song, but for me, it’s also a sign that Wave is steadily growing into a real language. 🌊

Stay tuned for the next updates — structs are coming soon.