weekly 2024-07-08

Language Update

• [Breaking change] Modified array slice syntax from arr[start..end] to arr[start:end] similar to Python. This change is made to avoid syntax conflicts with the upcoming cascade method call x..f(). The old syntax will be deprecated soon.

• [Breaking change on wasm backend] Code in fn init is now compiled into the start section. Previous versions compiled code from both fn init and fn main into a special function exported as "_start", therefore, host environments needed to call "_start" for initialization and execution of the main function. The new version uses the wasm standard's start section to execute fn init during module loading, eliminating the need to call "_start" for fn init. "_start" is only necessary when executing main.

• [Breaking change] test block no longer returns Result type results. Error handling mechanisms are now used within test blocks to handle test failures. The standard library's inspect function and helpers like @test.eq from the @test package are encouraged for writing tests, for example:

test "unwrap should return value on Some" {
  let some : Int? = Some(42)
  inspect(some, content="Some(42)")!
  @test.eq(some.unwrap(), 42)!
}

• Supports using @pkg.C to access constructors across packages. For example, if @pkgA contains the following declaration:

// pkgA
pub enum E1 { C1 }

Now, in another package, E1's constructor C1 can be directly used, for instance:

// pkgB
fn main {
  debug(@pkgA.C1)
}

In the same package, encountering duplicate public constructors will result in an error, for example:

pub enum E1 {
  C1
}

pub enum E2 {
  C1
  ^^ ------ There can be at most one public constructor with name C1.
}

Core Update

• Migrated to a new error handling mechanism.

• Migrated to unsigned integers, removed old compare_u, div_u, mod_u functions for Int and Int64 types; API adjustments include:

  • Int32.trunc_double_u, Int64.trunc_double_u changed to UInt.trunc_double, UInt64.trunc_double.
  • Int64::extend_i32_u changed to UInt64::extend_uint.
  • Double::convert_i32_u, Double::convert_i64_u changed to Double::convert_uint, Double::convert_uint64.

Build System Update

• moon version --all displays moonrun's version information:

$ moon version --all
moon 0.1.20240705 (0e8c10e 2024-07-05) ~/.moon/bin/moon
moonc v0.1.20240705+7fdd4a042 ~/.moon/bin/moonc
moonrun 0.1.20240703 (52ecf2a 2024-07-03) ~/.moon/bin/moonrun

• Modified moon new project creation to default the license field to empty.

• Diagnostics information rendering is now enabled by default.

Toolchain Update

• VSCode plugin defaulted to installing the corresponding plugin version's toolchain, changed from always installing the latest version.