Kronos Roadmap

This document outlines the planned features and release schedule for Kronos.

Current Status

Current Version: 0.4.5 Status: ✅ Stable - Core language features complete

What's Available Now

✅ Core language features (variables, types, operators, control flow)
✅ Functions with parameters and return values
✅ Logical operators (and, or, not)
✅ Lists/arrays with full operations (indexing, slicing, iteration)
✅ Maps/dictionaries with hash table implementation (literals, indexing, key-value storage)
✅ String operations (concatenation, indexing, slicing, built-ins)
✅ F-strings (string interpolation)
✅ Enhanced standard library (math functions, type conversion, list utilities)
✅ Module system (built-in modules like math)
✅ Enhanced control flow (else-if, break, continue)
✅ LSP support (error checking, go-to-definition, hover, completions)
✅ Range objects (literals, indexing, slicing, iteration, length)

Upcoming Releases

Version 0.4.0: "Modules & Error Handling"

Target: Q4 2025 Status: ✅ Completed

Planned Features

✅ Range Objects - First-class range support (completed)
- Range literals: range 1 to 10, range 0 to 100 by 5
- Range indexing: r at 0, r at -1 (supports positive and negative indices)
- Range length: call len with r
- Range iteration: for i in r:
- Range slicing: r from 2 to 5
✅ Type Conversion Functions - Complete type conversion utilities (completed)
- to_number() - ✅ Convert string to number
- to_bool() - ✅ Convert string/number to boolean
- to_string() - ✅ Already implemented
✅ Dictionaries/Maps - Key-value storage with hash table implementation (completed)
- Map literals: map key: value, key2: value2
- Map indexing: map at key (supports string, number, boolean, and null keys)
- Map operations: map_get(), map_set(), map_delete()
- Hash table implementation with automatic growth
- Memory management with reference counting and garbage collection
- Map printing and equality comparison
```
set person to map name: "Alice", age: 30, city: "NYC"
print person at "name"
# Note: Map assignment (let person at "age" to 31) deferred to future
```

✅ File-based Module System - Import code from other .kr files (completed)

import utils from "mylib.kr"
# Modules are executed when imported
# Functions and variables from modules are accessible via module namespace

✅ Core Operator Improvements - Missing fundamental operators (completed)
- ✅ Modulo operator (mod): set remainder to 10 mod 3 → 1
- ✅ Unary negation (-x): set neg to -value instead of 0 minus value
✅ Mutable Collection Operations - In-place modification of collections (completed)
- ✅ List index assignment: let nums at 0 to 10 (modify list element)
- ✅ Map key deletion: delete person at "age" (remove key from map)
```
let nums to list 1, 2, 3
let nums at 0 to 10      # nums is now [10, 2, 3]

let person to map name: "Alice", age: 30
delete person at "age"   # person is now {name: "Alice"}
```

✅ Exception Handling - Try/catch/finally blocks for better error management (completed)

try:
    raise ValueError "Invalid input"
catch ValueError as e:
    print "Caught ValueError:", e
catch error:
    print "Caught error:", error
finally:
    print "Cleanup"

✅ File I/O Operations - Complete file system interface (completed)

set content to call read_file with "data.txt"
call write_file with "output.txt", content
set lines to call read_lines with "data.txt"
set exists to call file_exists with "data.txt"
set files to call list_files with "."

✅ Path Operations - File path utilities (completed)

set full_path to call join_path with "dir", "file.txt"
set dir to call dirname with "/path/to/file.txt"
set file to call basename with "/path/to/file.txt"

✅ Regular Expressions - Pattern matching and text processing (completed)

import regex
set matches to call regex.match with "hello", "h.*o"
set result to call regex.search with "hello world", "world"
set all_matches to call regex.findall with "cat, bat, sat", "[a-z]at"

✅ LSP Improvements (Completed)
- ✅ Hover info for file-based modules (show module path and exports)
- ✅ Module function validation (verify functions exist in imported modules)
- ✅ Find all references
- ✅ Rename symbol
- ✅ Code actions & quick fixes
- ✅ Document formatting
- ✅ Workspace symbols
- ✅ Code lens
✅ REPL Expression Statements - Python-like interactive shell (completed)
- ✅ Allow expressions to be used as statements in the REPL
- ✅ Automatically print expression results (like Python's interactive shell)
- ✅ Support for evaluating expressions like 10 plus 20 directly in the REPL
- ✅ Example: Running ./kronos and typing 42 or 10 plus 20 will print the result
- ✅ Command-line execution flag: ./kronos -e "print 42" to execute code without entering REPL
- ✅ Support multiple -e flags: ./kronos -e "set x to 10" -e "print x"
✅ REPL Line Editing & History - Enhanced interactive experience (completed)
- ✅ Arrow key navigation (up/down for history, left/right for editing)
- ✅ Command history (configurable size: 100 entries, persistent across sessions via .kronos_history)
- ✅ Tab completion (keywords, function names, variable names)
- ✅ Basic editing (backspace, delete, home/end keys)
- ✅ Implemented using linenoise: Lightweight, single-file library, BSD license, no external dependencies
- History is automatically saved to .kronos_history file in the current directory
- Tab completion provides suggestions for all Kronos keywords, user-defined functions, and global variables
✅ Code Documentation Improvements - Improve comment quality (completed)
- ✅ Improve comments to explain "why" rather than just "what"
- ✅ Add design decision documentation
- ✅ Document edge cases and non-obvious behavior
- Incremental improvement as code is modified (ongoing)
📋 Code Refactoring - Improve code organization (future)
- Refactor functions with long parameter lists (5+ parameters) to use parameter structs
- Example: call_module_function() currently takes 5 parameters; consider using a struct for better maintainability

Version 0.4.5: "Website & Documentation"

Target: Q1 2026 Status: ✅ Completed

Completed Features

✅ Official Website - Public-facing website at kronos.nedanwr.dev
- Modern, responsive dark-themed design
- Interactive code examples with syntax highlighting
- Live code playground with WebAssembly execution
- Comprehensive documentation and tutorials
- Download links and installation instructions
- Examples gallery with runnable code snippets
- Community links (GitHub, discussions, etc.)
✅ Documentation Website - Integrated documentation site
- Full language reference documentation
- Tutorials and getting started guides
- Example programs and use cases
- Search functionality
- Dark theme with syntax highlighting
✅ Interactive Playground - Web-based code editor
- In-browser Kronos code editor
- TextMate-based syntax highlighting
- WebAssembly-powered code execution
- Real-time output and error display
- Compile-time warnings (e.g., division by zero)
- Example templates for all language features
- Keyboard shortcut support (⌘/Ctrl+Enter to run)
✅ Compiler Enhancements - Improved diagnostics
- Compile-time warning system
- Division/modulo by zero detection
- Fixed else if control flow bug

Technical Implementation:

Next.js with Fumadocs for static site generation
Custom TextMate grammar-based syntax highlighting
WebAssembly VM via Emscripten compilation
Hosted on Vercel at kronos.nedanwr.dev

Version 0.5.0: "Advanced Language Features"

Target: Q1 2026 Status: 🚧 In Progress

Planned Features

String Interpolation Enhancements - Advanced formatting features

set price to 19.99
set formatted to f"Price: {price:.2f}"  # Format specifiers

Multiple Return Values - Tuple returns and destructuring

function divide_with_remainder with a, b:
    return q, r

set q, r to call divide_with_remainder with 10, 3
set x, y to y, x  # Swap

Function Enhancements
- Default parameter values: function greet with name, greeting="Hello":
- Variadic functions: function sum with ...numbers:
- Named arguments: call create_user with name: "Alice", age: 30

Anonymous Functions / Lambdas - First-class functions

set double to function with x: return x times 2
set doubled to map numbers with function with x: return x times 2

List Utilities (Higher-Order) - filter() and map() functions

set evens to filter numbers with function with x: return (x divided by 2) times 2 is equal x
set doubled to map numbers with function with x: return x times 2

List Comprehensions - Concise list creation

set squares to [x times x for x in range 1 to 10]
set evens to [x for x in range 1 to 20 if (x divided by 2) times 2 is equal x]

Pattern Matching - Advanced control flow

match value:
    case 1:
        print "One"
    case 2:
        print "Two"
    default:
        print "Other"

Type System Enhancements
- Generic types: list<number>, map<string, number>
- Type aliases: type Point to map x: number, y: number
- Multi-type support: as number or string
Debugging Support
```
debug "Variable x:", x
```
LSP Improvements
- Signature help
- Semantic tokens
- Inlay hints
- Call hierarchy
- Code folding
- Bracket pair colorization

Version 1.0.0: "Production Release"

Target: N/A Status: 📋 Planned

Planned Features

Concurrency - Goroutines and channels (Go-inspired)

spawn task with:
    for i in range 1 to 10:
        print "Task:", i

set ch to channel
spawn sender with ch:
    send ch, "hello"
set msg to receive ch

Complete Standard Library - 50+ functions across multiple modules
- Math: sin(), cos(), tan(), asin(), acos(), atan(), log(), log10(), exp(), cbrt()
- String: find(), rfind(), count(), capitalize(), title()
- Date/Time: now(), format_date(), parse_date(), sleep()
- Collections: zip(), enumerate(), any(), all(), sum()
- System: exit(), args(), env()
- JSON: parse_json(), to_json()
- CSV: read_csv(), write_csv(), parse_csv(), to_csv()
- Test Framework: assert, test, run_tests
- Crypto: md5(), sha1(), sha256(), sha512(), random_bytes(), secure_random_int()
- HTTP: http_get(), http_post(), HTTP server (requires concurrency)
- CLI: parse_args(), argument parsing utilities

Method Chaining - Fluent API support

set result to text.uppercase().trim().split(" ")
set processed to list 1, 2, 3.filter(function with x: return x is greater than 2).map(function with x: return x times 2)

Performance Optimizations
- Bytecode optimization passes
- Constant folding
- Dead code elimination
- Inline caching for method calls
- Profile-guided optimization
- F-string Expression Parsing Optimization - Parse embedded expressions inline
  - Currently f-strings re-tokenize embedded expressions, which is inefficient
  - Optimize by tracking source positions in tokens and parsing inline
  - Requires architectural changes: position tracking, substring parsing capability
  - Will eliminate redundant tokenization for f-string expressions
Standard Library Modules
- math - Complete mathematical functions
- string - String utilities
- os - Operating system interface
- json - JSON parsing and generation
- csv - CSV parsing and generation
- test - Testing framework
- crypto - Cryptographic functions
- http - HTTP client and server
- cli - Command-line argument parsing
- time - Time and date operations
- collections - Collection utilities
- regex - Regular expressions

Package Manager - Install and manage packages

kronos install <package>
kronos list
kronos remove <package>

Code Formatter - Opinionated formatter (like gofmt/rustfmt)
```
kronos format <file>
kronos format --check <file>
```

Linter - Code quality checks

kronos lint <file>
kronos lint --fix <file>

Test Runner - Built-in testing framework
```
kronos test
kronos test --verbose
```
Documentation Generator - Generate docs from code
```
kronos doc
kronos doc --output docs/
```
LSP Complete - Full language server protocol support
- All previous LSP features
- Workspace symbols
- Call hierarchy
- Multi-root workspace support
- Production-ready performance

Post-1.0.0 (Future)

Advanced Features

Supervisor Trees / Fault Tolerance (Erlang-style)
- Process supervision
- Restart strategies
- Fault isolation
Package Manager (Advanced)
- Version resolution
- Dependency graph
- Lock files (kronos.lock)
- Package caching
- Offline mode support
- Parallel package installation
- Dependency conflict resolution
First-Party Installable Packages
- @kronos/yaml - YAML parsing and generation
- @kronos/toml - TOML parsing and generation
- @kronos/xml - XML parsing and generation
- @kronos/websocket - WebSocket client and server
- @kronos/math-advanced - Advanced mathematical functions
- @kronos/collections-advanced - Advanced data structures
- @kronos/debug - Enhanced debugging utilities
Web Templating Engine (Blade-like)
- Template inheritance
- Component system
- HTML escaping
- Control flow directives
Performance Optimizations
- JIT compilation
- Hot path optimization
- Profile-guided optimization
- Dynamic String Intern Table - Configurable and growable intern table
  - Replace fixed-size hash table with dynamically allocated table
  - Support for configuration via environment variable or API
  - Automatic growth when load factor exceeds threshold
  - Rehashing logic for table expansion
  - Improved memory efficiency for programs with many unique strings
- Relative Epsilon Comparison - Improved floating-point comparison accuracy
  - Replace fixed epsilon with magnitude-scaled relative epsilon
  - More accurate comparisons for very large numbers (e.g., 1e20)
  - More accurate comparisons for very small numbers
  - Better handling of floating-point precision across different numeric ranges
Advanced Type System
- Optional static typing
- Type inference
- Generic types
- Type constraints

Feature Requests & Feedback

Have a feature idea? We'd love to hear from you! Please open an issue on GitHub to discuss.

Contributing

Interested in contributing? Check out our contributing guidelines (coming soon) or review the development documentation.

Last Updated: December 2025

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Kronos Roadmap

Current Status

What's Available Now

Upcoming Releases

Version 0.4.0: "Modules & Error Handling"

Planned Features

Version 0.4.5: "Website & Documentation"

Completed Features

Version 0.5.0: "Advanced Language Features"

Planned Features

Version 1.0.0: "Production Release"

Planned Features

Post-1.0.0 (Future)

Advanced Features

Feature Requests & Feedback

Contributing

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Kronos Roadmap

Current Status

What's Available Now

Upcoming Releases

Version 0.4.0: "Modules & Error Handling"

Planned Features

Version 0.4.5: "Website & Documentation"

Completed Features

Version 0.5.0: "Advanced Language Features"

Planned Features

Version 1.0.0: "Production Release"

Planned Features

Post-1.0.0 (Future)

Advanced Features

Feature Requests & Feedback

Contributing