# Pony

> programming language

**Wikidata**: [Q51160093](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q51160093)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_(programming_language))  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/pony

## Summary
Pony is an object-oriented programming language designed for building reliable and concurrent systems. It emphasizes actor-model concurrency and memory safety without garbage collection, making it suitable for high-performance applications. The language was first released in 2017 and is licensed under the 2-clause BSD License.

## Key Facts
- **Instance of**: Programming language
- **Programming paradigm**: Object-oriented programming
- **License**: 2-clause BSD License (since 2019-03-06)
- **Latest stable version**: 0.21.3 (released 2018-01-14)
- **Website**: [ponylang.io](https://www.ponylang.io/)
- **Source code repository**: [GitHub](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc)
- **User manual**: [stdlib.ponylang.io](https://stdlib.ponylang.io/)
- **Copyright status**: Copyrighted
- **Wikipedia page**: [Pony (programming language)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pony_(programming_language))
- **Related project**: Project Verona (experimental programming language, inception 2019)

## FAQs
### Q: What is Pony used for?
A: Pony is used for building reliable and concurrent systems, particularly in applications requiring high performance and memory safety without garbage collection.

### Q: How does Pony handle concurrency?
A: Pony uses the actor model for concurrency, where actors communicate via asynchronous messages, ensuring thread safety and avoiding shared-state issues.

### Q: Is Pony open-source?
A: Yes, Pony is open-source and licensed under the 2-clause BSD License, allowing for free use, modification, and distribution.

### Q: What is the latest version of Pony?
A: The latest stable version is 0.21.3, released on 2018-01-14.

### Q: Where can I find documentation for Pony?
A: Documentation is available on the [Pony standard library website](https://stdlib.ponylang.io/).

## Why It Matters
Pony addresses critical challenges in modern software development by combining the safety of garbage-collected languages with the performance of low-level languages. Its actor-model concurrency ensures thread safety without the complexity of manual memory management, making it ideal for high-performance applications. The language’s focus on reliability and concurrency makes it a valuable tool for developers building distributed systems, real-time applications, and other performance-critical software. By avoiding garbage collection, Pony provides predictable performance, which is essential for systems requiring low latency and high throughput. Its open-source nature and active community further enhance its adoption and evolution.

## Notable For
- **Actor-model concurrency**: Pony’s use of the actor model ensures thread safety and simplifies concurrent programming.
- **Memory safety without garbage collection**: Pony provides memory safety without relying on garbage collection, offering predictable performance.
- **High-performance applications**: Pony is designed for building reliable and concurrent systems, making it suitable for real-time and distributed applications.
- **Open-source and BSD-licensed**: Pony’s open-source nature and permissive license encourage widespread adoption and modification.
- **Standard library documentation**: Pony offers comprehensive documentation on its [standard library website](https://stdlib.ponylang.io/), aiding developers in learning and using the language.

## Body
### Overview
Pony is an object-oriented programming language that emphasizes actor-model concurrency and memory safety without garbage collection. It was first released in 2017 and is licensed under the 2-clause BSD License. The language is designed to build reliable and concurrent systems, particularly in applications requiring high performance.

### Key Features
- **Actor-model concurrency**: Pony uses the actor model for concurrency, where actors communicate via asynchronous messages, ensuring thread safety and avoiding shared-state issues.
- **Memory safety**: Pony provides memory safety without garbage collection, offering predictable performance.
- **High-performance applications**: Pony is designed for building reliable and concurrent systems, making it suitable for real-time and distributed applications.

### Development and Releases
- **Latest stable version**: 0.21.3 (released 2018-01-14)
- **Previous versions**: Pony has released multiple versions, including 0.21.2 (2017-12-26), 0.21.1 (2017-12-23), 0.21.0 (2017-12-17), and 0.20.0 (2017-10-17).
- **Source code repository**: The source code is hosted on [GitHub](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc).

### Documentation and Resources
- **User manual**: Documentation is available on the [Pony standard library website](https://stdlib.ponylang.io/).
- **Website**: The official website is [ponylang.io](https://www.ponylang.io/).

### Related Projects
- **Project Verona**: An experimental programming language initiated in 2019, which may have influenced or been related to Pony’s development.

## References

1. [Source](https://api.github.com/repos/ponylang/ponyc)
2. [Release 0.21.3. 2018](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.21.3)
3. [Release 0.21.2. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.21.2)
4. [Release 0.21.1. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.21.1)
5. [Release 0.21.0. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.21.0)
6. [Release 0.20.0. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.20.0)
7. [Release 0.19.3. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.19.3)
8. [Release 0.19.2. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.19.2)
9. [Release 0.19.1. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.19.1)
10. [Release 0.19.0. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.19.0)
11. [Release 0.18.1. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.18.1)
12. [Release 0.18.0. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.18.0)
13. [Release 0.17.0. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.17.0)
14. [Release 0.16.1. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.16.1)
15. [Release 0.16.0. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.16.0)
16. [Release 0.15.0. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.15.0)
17. [Release 0.14.0. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.14.0)
18. [Release 0.13.2. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.13.2)
19. [Release 0.13.1. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.13.1)
20. [Release 0.13.0. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.13.0)
21. [Release 0.12.3. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.12.3)
22. [Release 0.12.2. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.12.2)
23. [Release 0.12.1. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.12.1)
24. [Release 0.12.0. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.12.0)
25. [Release 0.11.4. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.11.4)
26. [Release 0.11.3. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.11.3)
27. [Release 0.11.2. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.11.2)
28. [Release 0.11.1. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.11.1)
29. [Release 0.11.0. 2017](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.11.0)
30. [Release 0.10.0. 2016](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.10.0)
31. [Release 0.9.0. 2016](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.9.0)
32. [Release 0.8.0. 2016](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.8.0)
33. [Release 0.7.0. 2016](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.7.0)
34. [Release 0.6.0. 2016](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.6.0)
35. [Release 0.5.1. 2016](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.5.1)
36. [Release 0.5.0. 2016](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.5.0)
37. [Release 0.4.0. 2016](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.4.0)
38. [Release 0.3.3. 2016](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.3.3)
39. [Release 0.3.2. 2016](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.3.2)
40. [Release 0.3.1. 2016](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.3.1)
41. [Release 0.3.0. 2016](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.3.0)
42. [Release 0.22.1. 2018](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.22.1)
43. [Release 0.22.0. 2018](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.22.0)
44. [Release 0.22.2. 2018](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.22.2)
45. [Release 0.22.3. 2018](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.22.3)
46. [Release 0.22.4. 2018](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.22.4)
47. [Release 0.22.5. 2018](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.22.5)
48. [Release 0.22.6. 2018](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.22.6)
49. [Release 0.23.0. 2018](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.23.0)
50. [Release 0.24.0. 2018](https://github.com/ponylang/ponyc/releases/tag/0.24.0)