v0.2.8

Full Changelog: v0.2.6...v0.2.8

Vix Language v0.2.8 Release Notes

Release Date: 2026-05-31

Language And Compiler

Match scrutinee now supports call-like expressions

• Fixed the parser/desugaring pipeline so match can accept call-like scrutinees in addition to existing identifier and literal forms.
• In practice this enables patterns such as match choose(1) { ... } and match peek_char(src, pos) { ... }.
• Non-trivial scrutinees are materialized into an internal temporary binding before desugaring to nested if chains, preserving existing Option and Result pattern semantics.
• Files: src/parser/parser.y

Match arms now accept single-line bodies

• Fixed match parsing so existing project examples like Some(v) -> print(v) and None -> print("none") parse correctly without requiring { ... } blocks.
• This restores compatibility with the established Option/Result/match style already used across examples/ and tests/regression/.
• Files: src/parser/parser.y

Compound assignment on general lvalues

• Extended compound assignment parsing from bare identifiers to general lvalues such as member access, indexing, and dereference-based lvalues.
• Fixed AST ownership so the desugared binary expression uses a cloned lvalue instead of reusing the assignment target node.
• Files: src/parser/parser.y

Safer runtime string concatenation in codegen

• Hardened generated string concatenation so null pointer operands are converted to empty strings before any strlen/strcpy/strcat calls.
• This prevents strlen(null)-style crashes on defensive or partially-initialized paths.
• Files: src/compiler/CodeGen.cpp

Type checking for string concatenation tightened

• Refined + typing so string concatenation is only selected when at least one operand is a string and the other operand is string-compatible.
• This avoids accidentally treating arbitrary pointer arithmetic as string concatenation.
• Files: src/Typeck/Typeck.cpp

Struct field array mutation tracking improved

• Fixed array field mutation writeback so s.field.push(x) correctly updates the underlying struct field storage instead of only mutating a transient loaded pointer.
• This unblocks vixc0 internals that store token streams and other compiler state inside structs with array fields.
• Files: src/compiler/CodeGen.cpp

vixc0 Progress

Bootstrap pipeline is now observable and structured

• vixc0 now has a visible end-to-end prototype chain with:
  • lexer module
  • parser module
  • AST module
  • QBE text builder/codegen module
  • entrypoint driver
• Added debug entry modes to the vixc0 prototype:
  • --lex
  • --parser
  • --ast
• Default mode still emits QBE text output.

Lexer implementation now uses Vix Option and match

• Reworked vixc0/lexer.vix so the implementation itself uses Vix Option and match style helpers such as peek_char(...) and keyword classification by optional result.
• This makes the bootstrap compiler implementation closer to the intended Vix coding style rather than a purely C-like transliteration.

Token stream representation refactored

• Replaced the earlier token-array shape with a TokenStream based on parallel arrays.
• This avoids fragile struct-array indexed field access paths while keeping the public lexer/debugging flow intact.

Parser moved to token-driven recursive descent

• Replaced the earlier source-driven parser prototype with a token-driven recursive-descent parser while keeping the external parse_program(src) interface stable.
• This reduces the largest early bootstrap debt without forcing a later CLI redesign.

Current vixc0 status

• vixc0 remains an early bootstrap prototype and is not yet a full self-hosting frontend.
• The current codegen remains intentionally narrow and focused on the bootstrap path it currently covers.
• Files: vixc0/main.vix, vixc0/lexer.vix, vixc0/parser.vix, vixc0/ast.vix, vixc0/codegen.vix, vixc0/ir-builder.vix

Examples

Added match-on-call examples

• Added examples/match_call_expr.vix to demonstrate match choose(1).
• Reworked examples/match_peek_char.vix as a self-contained demonstration of match peek_char("abc", 1) with both Some and None branches.

Validation

• Rebuilt vixc successfully with parser/typecheck/codegen changes.
• Verified existing match/Option examples:
  • examples/option.vix
  • examples/match_strings.vix
• Verified new call-expression match examples:
  • examples/match_call_expr.vix
  • examples/match_peek_char.vix
• Ran Option/Result regression coverage including:
  • tests/regression/test172.vix
  • tests/regression/test173.vix
  • tests/regression/test153.vix
  • tests/regression/test154.vix
• Built and exercised vixc0 debug modes:
  • --lex
  • --parser
  • --ast
  • default QBE output path