c3c/releasenotes.md

C3C Release Notes

0.5.0 Change List

Changes / improvements

• Strong optional handling requirements.
• Better dead code analysis, and added dead code errors.
• Exhaustive switches with enums has better analysis.
• Globals may now be initialized with optional values.
• New generic syntax.
• Slice initialization.
• $feature for feature flags.
• Improved stack trace.
• Macro ref parameters are now of pointer type and ref parameters are not assignable.
• Added nextcase default.
• Added $embed to embed binary data.
• Ad hoc generics are now allowed.
• Allow inferred type on method first argument.
• Fix to void expression blocks
• Temporary objects may now invoke methods using ref parameters.
• Delete object files after successful linking.
• @if introduced, other top level conditional compilation removed.
• @dynamic and @interface for dynamic dispatch.
• $if now uses $if <expr>: syntax.
• $assert now uses $assert <expr> : <optional message>
• $error is syntax sugar for $assert false : "Some message"
• $include, $echo no longer has mandatory () around the arguments.
• $exec for including the output of files.
• assert no longer allows "try unwrap"
• Updated cpu arguments for x86
• Removed support for ranged case statements that were floats or enums, or non-constant.
• nextcase with a constant expression that does not match any case is an error.
• Dropped support for LLVM 13-14.
• Updated grammar and lexer definition.
• Removal of $elif.
• @stdcall etc removed in favor of @callconv
• Empty fault definitions is now an error.
• Better errors on incorrect bitstruct syntax.
• Internal use wildcard type rather than optional wildcard.
• Experimental scaled vector type removed.
• Disallow parameterize attributes without parameters eg define @Foo() = { @inline }.
• Handle @optreturn contract, renamed @return!.
• Restrict interface style functions.
• Optional propagation and assignment '!' and '?' are flipped.
• Add l suffix (alias for i64).
• Allow getting the underlying type of anyfault.
• De-duplicate string constants.
• Change @extname => @extern.
• define and typedef removed.
• define is replaced by def.
• LLVM "wrapper" library compilation is exception free.
• private is replaced by attribute @private.
• Addition of @local for file local visibility.
• Addition of @public for overriding default visibility.
• Default visibility can be overridden per module compile unit. Eg module foo @private.
• Optimized macro codegen for -O0.
• Addition of unary +.
• Remove the : and ; used in $if, $switch etc.
• Faults have an ordinal.
• Generic module contracts.
• Type inference on enum comparisons, e.g foo_enum == ABC.
• Allow {} to initialize basic types.
• String literals default to String.
• More const modification detection.
• C3L zip support.
• Support printing object files.
• Downloading of libraries using vendor "fetch".
• Structural casts removed.
• Added "native" option for vector capability.
• $$shufflevector replaced with $$swizzle and $$swizzle2.
• Builtin swizzle accessors.
• Lambdas, e.g a = int(x, y) => x + y.
• $$FILEPATH builtin constant.
• variant renamed any.
• anyerr renamed anyfault.
• Added $$wasm_memory_size and $$wasm_memory_grow builtins.
• Add "link-args" for project.
• Possible to suppress entry points using --no-entry.
• Added memory-env option.
• Use the .wasm extension on WASM binaries.
• Update precedence clarification rules for ^|&.
• Support for casting any expression to void.
• Win 32-bit processor target removed.
• Insert null-check for contracts declaring & params.
• Support user defined attributes in generic modules.
• --strip-unused directive for small binaries.
• $$atomic_store and $$atomic_load added.
• usz/isz replaces usize and isize.
• @export attribute to determine what is visible in precompiled libraries.
• Disallow obviously wrong code returning a pointer to a stack variable.
• Add &^| operations for bitstructs.
• @noinit replaces = void to opt-out of implicit zeroing.
• Multiple declarations are now allowed in most places, eg int a, b;.
• Allow simplified (boolean) bitstruct definitions.
• Allow @test to be placed on module declarations.
• Updated name mangling for non-exports.
• defer catch and defer try statements added.
• Better errors from $assert.
• @deprecated attribute added.
• Allow complex array length inference, eg int[*][2][*] a = ....
• Cleanup of cast code.
• Removal of generic keyword.
• Remove implicit cast enum <-> int.
• Allow enums to use a distinct type as the backing type.
• Update addition and subtraction on enums.
• @ensure checks only non-optional results.
• assert may now take varargs for formatting.

Stdlib changes

• Socket handling.
• csv package.
• Updated posix/win32 stdlib namespacing
• process stdlib
• Stdlib updates to string.
• Many additions to List: remove, array_view, add_all, compact etc
• Added dstringwriter.
• Improved printf formatting.
• is_finite/is_nam/is_inf added.
• OnStack allocator to easily allocate a stack buffer.
• File enhancements: mkdir, rmdir, chdir.
• Path type for file path handling.
• Distinct String type.
• VarString replaced by DString.
• Removal of std::core::str.
• JSON parser and general Object type.
• Addition of EnumMap.
• RC4 crypto.
• Matrix identity macros.
• compare_exchange added.
• printfln and println renamed printfn and printn.
• Support of roundeven.
• Added easings.
• Updated complex/matrix, added quaternion maths.
• Improved support for freestanding.
• Improved windows main support, with @winmain annotations.
• SimpleHeapAllocator added.
• Added win32 standard types.
• Added saturated math.
• Added @expect, @unlikely and @likely macros.
• Temp allocator uses memory-env to determine starting size.
• Temp allocator is now accessed using mem::temp(), heap allocator using mem::heap().
• Float parsing added.
• Additions to std::net, ipv4/ipv6 parsing.
• Stream api.
• Random api.
• Sha1 hash function.
• Extended enumset functionality.
• Updated malloc/calloc/realloc/free removing old helper functions.
• Added TrackingAllocator.
• Add checks to prevent incorrect alignment on malloc.
• Updated clamp.
• Added Clock and DateTime.
• Added posix socket functions.

Fixes

• Types of arrays and vectors are consistently checked to be valid.
• Anonymous bitstructs check of duplicate member names fixed.
• Assignment to anonymous bitstruct members in structs.
• Fix casts on empty initializers.
• Fix to DString reserve
• @local declarations in generic modules available by accident.
• Fixes missing checks to body arguments.
• Do not create debug declaration for value-only parameter.
• Bug in alignment for atomics.
• Fix to bug when comparing nested arrays.
• Fix to bug when a macro is using rethrow.
• Fixes bug initializing a const struct with a const struct value.
• Fixes bug when void is passed to an "any"-vararg.
• Fixed defer/return value ordering in certain cases.
• Fixes to the x64 ABI.
• Updates to how variadics are implemented.
• Fixes to shift checks.
• Fixes to string parsing.
• Bug when rethrowing an optional from a macro which didn't return an optional.
• Fixed issues with ranged cases.
• Disallow trailing ',' in function parameter list.
• Fixed errors on flexible array slices.
• Fix of readdir issues on macOS.
• Fix to slice assignment of distinct types.
• Fix of issue casting subarrays to distinct types.
• Fixes to split, rindex_of.
• List no longer uses the temp allocator by default.
• Remove test global when not in test mode.
• Fix sum/product on floats.
• Fix error on void! return of macros.
• Removed too permissive casts on subarrays.
• Using C files correctly places objects in the build folder.
• Fix of overaligned deref.
• Fix negating a float vector.
• Fix where $typeof(x) { ... } would not be a valid compound literal.
• Fix so that using var in if (var x = ...) works correctly.
• Fix int[] -> void* casts.
• Fix in utf8to16 conversions.
• Updated builtin checking.
• Reduce formatter register memory usage.
• Fixes to the "any" type.
• Fix bug in associated values.
• More RISC-V tests and fixes to the ABI.
• Fix issue with hex floats assumed being double despite f suffix.
• Fix of the tan function.
• Fixes to the aarch64 ABI when passing invalid vectors.
• Fix creating typed compile time variables.
• Fix bug in !floatval codegen.
• Fix of visibility issues for generic methods.
• Fixes to $include.
• Fix of LLVM codegen for optionals in certain cases.
• Fix of $vasplat when invoked repeatedly.
• Fix to $$DATE.
• Fix of attributes on nested bitstructs.
• Fix comparing const values > 64 bits.
• Defer now correctly invoked in expressions like return a > 0 ? Foo.ABC! : 1.
• Fix conversion in if (int x = foo()).
• Delay C ABI lowering until requested to prevent circular dependencies.
• Fix issue with decls accidentally invalidated during $checked eval.
• Fold optional when casting slice to pointer.
• Fixed issue when using named arguments after varargs.
• Fix bug initializing nested struct/unions.
• Fix of bool -> vector cast.
• Correctly widen C style varargs for distinct types and optionals.
• Fix of too aggressive codegen in ternary codegen with array indexing.

0.4.0 Change List

• Compatibility with LLVM 16.
• Dropped LLVM 12 support.
• Updated vector comparisons.
• Built in unit testing with @test and compile-test
• Updated memory allocators. Added @scoped and @pool macros.
• Various bug fixes.
• Generic modules may now be generic over integers and booleans.
• Constant pointers may be compile time evaluated.
• Added many new builtins.
• Emit asm using --emit-asm.
• Added --nostdlib and --nolibc.
• Compiling for AVX can now select "native".
• Fixes to adding libraries at link time.
• Various improved error messages.
• Windows debug info fixes.
• Add of foreach_r for reverse list traversal.
• Script downloading the MSVC SDK to cross compile to windows.
• Many standard library additions.
• Extension methods may be added for built-in types.
• Macros may take vector and array arguments generic over length.
• Macro varargs with $vaarg, $vacount etc.
• Many vector builtins added as dot methods.
• in / out / inout doc parameters checked.
• Initial inline asm support for aarch64 and x64.
• Single line short function declaration.
• Added $checks builtin.
• Added $include builtin for including other text files.
• Optional single module compilation.
• Static initialization / finalization to have code running at start/end.
• C3 custom printf function in the stdlib.
• []= overload now works correctly.
• Static libraries may now be built.
• More compile time reflection added and general cleanup done.
• usize/isize/iptrdiff/uptrdiff replaced by usz/isz.
• Add var to allow type inference on regular variables.
• LLVM codegen optimizations.
• ?? now allows chaining another optional.
• int128 support on all platforms.
• import is now allowed anywhere at the top level.
• project.c3p renamed project.json
• Update to project properties, e.g. "libs" -> "dependencies" etc.
• $$TIME, $$DATE and $$FUNCTION builtin defines added.
• $echo function to print messages at compile time.
• Improvements to untyped lists.
• Various builtins added: $$prefetch, $$reverse, $$shufflevector etc.

0.3.0 Change List

Changes / improvements:

• Allow any expression as default expression.
• Allow using enums for indexing arrays.
• Added $convertable / $castable compile time functions.
• Removed ´func´ deprecated keyword
• Slicing a distinct type now returns the distinct type.
• Renamed @autoimport -> @builtin
• Zero length arrays not allowed
• Allow methods may use ref, pointer and value arguments as "self"
• Updated external name mangling
• More advanced introspection.
• @maydiscard and @nodiscard annotations
• New type promotion rules: The common type of int[x]* and int[y]* is int[]
• Added type.inner and type.len reflection.
• Support float mod operations.
• Add float.max/min.
• Allow [in] contract to be used on subarray types.
• Add linker and linked dir arguments to build files.
• Auto-import std::core.
• LLVM 15 support.
• Beter native file handling for MSVC
• New import rules – recursive imports
• Add lld linking for FreeBSD
• User defined attributes. @Foo = @inline
• Support enum associated values.
• @ is now part of the name of an attribute or a macro. Macros without '@' must be function-like.
• Ordinal based enums.
• Allow locals to shadow global variables.
• Prefer inferred constant over global in the case of MyEnum f = BAR;
• Enum and fault name reflection.
• Deref null error now panics in safe mode.

Changes to stdlib:

• Updated allocators.
• Added enum_by_name.
• Moved bitcast to builtin module.
• Native printf for files and strings.
• Updated String.
• Comparison macros
• Added Binary-Heap Based Priority Queue by David Kopec
• Matrix Math Library by PixelRifts
• UTF conversions in "conv" module.

Fixes:

• Attributes correctly checks for recursive definitions now.
• Added a max bitstruct size.
• Fix of expr location in args.
• Fixing distinct, typedef and bitstruct copying. Fix where global constants did not need to be constant.
• Better error on all upper parameter names.
• Fix constant typeid comparisons.
• Simplify and corrected if try/catch parsing.
• Fix bug with { [A] = 1 }
• Conversion unsigned int -> enum fixed.
• Fix bug preventing implicit & on optionals.
• More efficient int[] a = {}
• Fix bug in extension methods for generic types and typedefs
• Fix to extension methods in other modules.
• Disallow complist as a regular macro parameter.
• Fix in nested block handling
• Fix of error where {| |} with value return could have no final return
• Vararg abi fix
• Fix "libs" in project creation
• Fix bug with bit struct initialization and zeros
• Reduce size of memory pages used.
• Fix issues with union of const.
• Fix initialization of anonymous structs.
• Fix conversion between distinct void* and null
• Fix of default project creation target format.
• Fix of $sizeof(Type) => Type.sizeof
• Fix stack setting after error return.
• Fix module assignment of declarations
• Global @align fixed
• Fixes enum set with new ordinal based enums
• SysV ABI fix for passing certain things by struct.
• Fix implicitly converting to float in the case of myfloat *= -1