Change Log

[Unreleased changes] - 2026-MM-DD

Breaking changes

Deprecations

Added

added new macro $gensym, to generate a unique symbol identifier to use in macros
append, concat, and pop can be use as values

Changed

all paths inside if should return a value, when used as an expression. If an else branch is missing, nil will be returned
new compile time error when trying to use append!, concat!, pop!, @= and @@= as values

Removed

[4.4.1] - 2026-03-19

Breaking changes

in function calls, the function to call is now always evaluated first
in function calls, the arguments are now evaluated from left to right

Added

the bytecode reader can print the argument of a PUSH_RETURN_ADDRESS instruction as a hex number
new super instruction CALL_SYMBOL_BY_INDEX to optimise a LOAD_FAST_BY_INDEX followed by a CALL

Changed

instruction counter in the bytecode reader are displayed in hex, and count each instruction instead of each byte
let / mut / set push a copy of their value when used as expression (instead of an internal reference)

Removed

removed a nearly never emitted GET_CURRENT_PAGE_ADDR instruction, since it's now always optimised with CALL into a CALL_CURRENT_PAGE instruction
removed list:size, dict:size, dict:contains, math:even and math:odd since they were deprecated since ArkScript 4.2.0

[4.4.0] - 2026-03-13

Deprecations

list:permutations is deprecated in favor of list:combinations
list:permutationsWithReplacement is deprecated in favor of list:combinationsWithReplacement

Added

new debugger commands: stack <n> and locals <n> to print the values on the stack and in the current locals scope
custom format specifiers for lists:
- :n to remove surrounding brackets,
- :c / :nc to use , as a separator instead of ,
- :l / :nl to use \n as a separator,
- :?s to format as an escaped quoted string,
- :s to format as a quoted string
format can use format specifiers for integers: b, #b, B, #B, c, d, o, x, #x, X, and #X if the argument is an integer
display a warning to stderr when using a deprecated function/value (checks for @deprecated inside the attached comment of functions / values)

Changed

pop! can return the removed value
@= and @@= return the inserted value
append! and concat! return the modified list
let, mut and set can return the assigned value
fix formatter: when the condition of a while loop is on multiple lines, add the right amount of indentation before it

[4.3.3] - 2026-03-01

Changed

runtime type checking errors are on stderr instead of stdout
runtime exceptions are on stderr instead of stdout

[4.3.2] - 2026-02-28

Changed

VM error outputs are on stderr instead of stdout

[4.3.1] - 2026-02-28

Added

new TAIL_CALL_SELF instruction to take care of tail calls in functions: jumps to address 0 in the current page, and reset the scope

Changed

error outputs are on stderr instead of stdout

[4.3.0] - 2026-02-26

Breaking change

in macros, len, empty?, head, tail, @ have been renamed to $len, $empty?, $head, $tail and $at. Those versions only work inside macros too, inside of having a weird dichotomy where they sometimes got applied and sometimes not

Added

apply function: (apply func [args...]), to call a function with a set of arguments stored in a list. Works with functions, closures and builtins
+, -, *, / and many other operators can now be passed around, like builtins. This now works: (list:reduce [1 2 3] +), where before we would get a compile time error about a "freestanding operator '+'"
builtin__slice builtin, for strings and lists: (builtin__slice data start end [step=1]) ; this is an experimentation and may be removed in future versions
arguments of builtin macros are properly type-checked and will now raise runtime errors if the type is incorrect
-fno-cache cli option to disable the creation of the bytecode cache folder __arkscript__
in the CLI, file can be - to read code from stdin

Changed

when using the cli flag -fdump-ir, the IR is dumped in the cache folder

[4.2.0] - 2026-02-04

Breaking changes

assert is no longer an instruction but a builtin
when comparing values of different types using <, >, <=, >= and =, the result will always be false (it used to rely on the type index)

Added

added BREAKPOINT instruction
breakpoints can be placed using (breakpoint) and (breakpoint condition)
added a debugger that can be triggered on error or on breakpoint by passing -fdebugger to the CLI (see the docs for the debugger)
diagnostics can now be generated when using State.doString, using Diagnostics::generateWithCode (as the original code must be passed to the diagnostics generator)
empty? can now take a dict, and returns true if it has no key/value pairs
len can now work on dictionaries, counting the number of keys

Changed

changed the runpath of arkscript to look for libArkReactor under its (arkscript's) directory, {arkscript}/bin, {arkscript}/lib, and {arkscript}/../lib
and and or require valid expressions, so (or 1 (mut x 3)) is no longer valid code, as (mut x 3) doesn't return a value
(not (dict "a" 2)) now returns false, as not checks if the dict is empty

[4.1.2] - 2026-01-09

Added

the repl prints the output of the last expression it ran
new super instructions: MUL_BY, MUL_BY_INDEX, MUL_SET_VAL that can do multiplications (and optional storing in vars) in place
new super instruction: FUSED_MATH, which can fuse 2 to 3 math operations in one go (ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV)
new LOAD_SYMBOL instruction that avoids creating a reference

Fixed

the REPL doesn't color import in two colors (red for imp__t and blue for ___or_), it keeps the first color that matched (red for import here)
page numbers are correctly counted when using the bytecode reader with '--only-names', instead of displaying 0 every time

Changed

quotes are added around strings in type errors
disassemble can show a file bytecode
empty? now accepts nil and returns true for this value
the REPL adds (repl:history) and (repl:save filename) as builtins
the REPL attempts to load a file from ARKSCRIPT_REPL_STARTUP environment variable, to preload code
rename LOAD_SYMBOL and LOAD_SYMBOL_BY_INDEX to LOAD_FAST and LOAD_FAST_BY_INDEX to emphasize they load refs

[4.1.1] - 2025-12-13

Fixed

the formatter was breaking functions' arguments list containing argument attributes on multiple lines for no reason
the formatter was formatting begin nodes inside conditions badly, putting the { on the same line as the condition, making it hard to know if the condition had then and else nodes or a single multi nodes then node

Changed

long function calls are split on multiple lines

[4.1.0] - 2025-12-12

Breaking changes

Function arguments are now immutable by default and an argument attribute mut must be added: (fun (a b c) (set b 5)) -> (fun (a (mut b) c) (set b 5))

Deprecated

dict:contains, use dict:contains?
math:even, use math:even?
math:odd, use math:odd?

Added

new builtin disassemble to print the bytecode of a function
new builtin io:readFileLines to read lines from a file as a list of strings

Changed

the formatter properly formats dictionaries (key-value pairs on their own line, always)
renamed dict:contains to dict:contains? so that all functions returning booleans have ? suffix ; added temporary alias dict:contains
renamed math:even to math:even?, and math:odd to math:odd?
string:removeAt can work with negative indexes

[4.0.0] - 2025-09-12

Added

more tests for the io builtins
added lines and code coloration in the error context
new dependency: fmtlib
added the padding/instruction/argumentation values when displaying instructions in the bytecode reader
$repr macro to get a string representation of a given node
added boost-ext/ut to write unit tests in C++
basic ArkScript code formatter, available through the CLI: arkscript -f|--format
comments are now tracked in the AST and attached to the nearest node below them
VM::forceReloadPlugins, to be used by the REPL to force reload the plugins and be sure that their symbols are all define
added help, save (save history to disk), history (print history), reset (reset vm and code) commands to the REPL
REPL can now show when a code block isn't terminated (prompt changes from > to :)
more controls available inside the REPL
fuzzing step in the CI
better error reporting on unknown import
check on number of arguments passed to type
warning when the formatter deletes comment(s) by mistake
check on arguments passed to list, concat, append and friends to only push valid nodes (that produces a value)
introduced Ark::internal::Pass to describe compiler passes: they all output an AST (parser, import solver, macro processor, and optimizer for now)
add -f(no-)importsolver, -f(no-)macroprocessor and -f(no-)optimizer to toggle on and off those compiler passes
added resolving empty? as a macro when possible
added short-circuiting to and and or implementation
added --check to the formatter as an option: returns 0 if the code is correctly formatted, 1 otherwise
the name & scope resolution pass now checks for mutability errors
compile time checks for mutability errors with append!, concat! and pop!
new MAKE_CLOSURE <page addr> instruction, generated in place of a LOAD_CONST when a closure is made
added -fdump-ir to dump the IR entities to a file named {file}.ark.ir
added 11 super instructions and their implementation to the VM
support for the glob import syntax and symbol import syntax
modify list and return a copy (string:setAt string index char) (bound checked)
added in place list mutation: (@= list|string index new_value), (@@= list|list<string> index1 index2 new_value|char) (bound checked)
compile time argument count check for and and or
basic dead code elimination in the AST optimizer
new operator @@ to get elements in list of lists / list of strings
new builtin random, returning a random number between INT_MIN and INT_MAX, or in a custom range
$as-is to paste a node inside a maro without evaluating it further ; useful to stop recursive evaluation of nodes inside function macros
LOAD_SYMBOL_BY_INDEX instruction, loading a local from the current scope by an index (0 being the last element added to the scope)
STORE_FROM_INDEX and SET_VAL_FROM_INDEX instructions for parity with the super instructions not using load by index
INCREMENT_BY_INDEX and DECREMENT_BY_INDEX instructions for parity with the super instructions not using load by index
STORE_TAIL_BY_INDEX, STORE_HEAD_BY_INDEX, SET_VAL_TAIL_BY_INDEX, SET_VAL_HEAD_BY_INDEX super instructions added for parity with the super instructions not using load by index
RESET_SCOPE_JUMP instruction emitted at the end of a while loop to reset a scope so that we can create multiple variables and use LOAD_SYMBOL_BY_INDEX
instruction source location ; two new bytecode tables were added: one for filenames, another for (page pointer, instruction pointer, file id, line), allowing the VM to display better error messages when the source is available
show source location when a runtime error is thrown in the VM
LT_CONST_JUMP_IF_FALSE and LT_SYM_JUMP_IF_FALSE to compare a symbol to a const and a symbol to a symbol (respectively), then jump to an address if false (useful for while loops that check a simple (< x n) condition)
LT_CONST_JUMP_IF_TRUE, counterpart of LT_CONST_JUMP_IF_FALSE
GT_CONST_JUMP_IF_TRUE, counterpart of LT_CONST_JUMP_IF_TRUE
GT_CONST_JUMP_IF_FALSE, counterpart of LT_CONST_JUMP_IF_FALSE
GT_SYM_JUMP_IF_FALSE, counterpart of LT_SYM_JUMP_IF_FALSE
CALL_SYMBOL super instruction to load and call a symbol in a single instruction
GET_FIELD_FROM_SYMBOL and GET_FIELD_FROM_SYMBOL_INDEX super instructions to get a field from a closure and push it to the stack
EQ_CONST_JUMP_IF_TRUE and EQ_SYM_INDEX_JUMP_IF_TRUE to compare a symbol to a const and a symbol to a symbol (respectively), then jump to an address if true (useful for conditions that check a simple (= x n) condition)
NEQ_CONST_JUMP_IF_TRUE as a super instruction counterpart to EQ_CONST_JUMP_IF_TRUE
NEQ_SYM_JUMP_IF_FALSE, counterpart of LT_SYM_JUMP_IF_FALSE for inequality
AT_SYM_SYM and AT_SYM_INDEX_SYM_INDEX super instructions, to get an element from a list in a single instruction, avoiding 2 push and 2 pop
CHECK_TYPE_OF and CHECK_TYPE_OF_BY_INDEX super instructions, to check the type of variable against a constant in a single instruction
INCREMENT_STORE and DECREMENT_STORE super instructions, to update a value in place when incrementing/decrementing it by a set amount
APPEND_IN_PLACE_SYM and APPEND_IN_PLACE_SYM_INDEX super instructions
PUSH_RETURN_ADDRESS instruction now replaces the VM auto push of IP/PP
remove the stack swapping by pushing arguments in the reverse order by which they are loaded
wasm export: we can now run ArkScript code on the web!
GET_CURRENT_PAGE_ADDRESS instruction to push the current page address to the stack
CALL_CURRENT_PAGE super instruction, calling the current page with a given number of arguments (avoid loading a page address on the stack, then popping it to perform the call)
new data type Dict, which can be created with (dict "key" "value" ...), and manipulated with dict:get, dict:add, dict:contains, dict:remove, dict:keys and dict:size
added program name under `builtin__sys:programName
STORE_LEN super instruction, to load a symbol by index and store its length (if it's a string or list) in a new variable
AT_SYM_INDEX_CONST super instruction, to load a value from a container using a constant as the index

Changed

instructions are on 4 bytes: 1 byte for the instruction, 1 byte of padding, 2 bytes for an immediate argument
enhanced the bytecode reader and its command line interface
added the padding/instruction/argumentation values when displaying instructions in the bytecode reader
fixed underline bug in the error context
the str:format functions now expects strings following this syntax: https://fmt.dev/12.0/syntax/
more documentation about the compiler implementation
more documentation about the virtual machine
closures can be now be compared field per field: (= closure1 closure2) will work only if they have the same fields (name) and if the values match
macros are now defined like (macro name value) / (macro name (args args args) body) / ($if cond then else)
upgraded from C++17 to C++20
new parser, new syntax for imports: (import package.sub.file)
allow nodes to be empty when dumping the AST to JSON
macros can be declared inside a begin block within a cond macro and used in the scope surrounding the cond macro
arkscript --version and arkscript --help now output ArkScript version with the commit hash
void Value::toString(std::ostream&, VM&) now becomes std::string Value::toString(VM&)
removed Node::operator<< to replace it with Node::debugPrint
fixed a bug in the compiler where one could pass a non symbol to let, mut or set, resulting in a compiler crash
fixed a bug in the macro processor where one could pass an unknown symbol to argcount and crash the processor
fixed a bug in the compiler where one could pass something other than a list to (fun) as the argument block, resulting in a crash
fixed a bug in the compiler generating not callable functions
fixed a bug in the macro processor generating invalid let / mut / set nodes
fixed a bug in the macro processor allowing out of bounds access with (macro test (@ [1 2 3] -5))
fixed a bug in the vm which wrongfully allowed self concat in place: (concat! lst lst)
fixed a bug in the compiler where one could "use" operators without calling them: (print nil?)
fixed a bug in the compiler allowing the use of operators without any argument: (+)
fixed a bug in the vm during error reporting when a non-function was used as a function
refactored code inside the bytecode reader to promote code reuse
fixed a bug in the compiler generating invalid while nodes
fixed a bug when passing the wrong number of arguments to a function inside an async call was crashing the VM because the function couldn't be named
fixed a bug in the compiler generating invalid fun nodes
fixed a bug when generating let, mut or set nodes inside macros with an invalid node type
fixed a bug when reading invalid UTF8 codepoints in the parser caused out of bounds reads
fixed a bug with recursive macro, exhausting the stack space due to recursive evaluation
futures can be awaited again, they will return nil on all the tries
checking for reused argument name in macros during parsing
enhanced comment after node handling in macros
adding a hard limit on package names length (255 characters, to comply with posix limits)
disallow passing invalid nodes as arguments to functions and operators
checking for unevaluated spread inside macros
checking for invalid symbols when defining a function through a macro
added a max macro unification depth (256)
added a max macro evaluation depth (256)
introduced internal::listInstructions with the different instructions, to be used by the compiler and name resolution pass
checking for forbidden variable/constant name in the name & scope resolution pass, to give errors to the user before compiling some weird code
repl completion and colors are now generated automatically from the builtins, keywords & operators
fixed formating of comments inside function declarations
renamed the macros symcat and argcount to $symcat and $argcount for uniformity
the Ark::VM class is now final
the STORE instruction has been renamed SET_VAL
the STORE instruction is emitted in place of the LET and MUT instructions, without any mutability checking now
io:writeFile no longer takes a mode and has been split into io:writeFile and io:appendToFile
instructions are now positioned like this: inst byte1 byte2 byte3
- byte1 is 0 if the instruction takes a single argument on 16 bits, split on byte2 and byte3
- if the instruction takes two arguments, they each have 12 bits ; the second one is on byte1 and upper half of byte2, the first on lower half of byte2 and then byte3
ast-to-json dump now supports macros
the parser can detect ill-formed macros (that are seen as function macros while being value macros)
adding a CALL_BUILTIN <builtin> <arg count> super instruction
fixed formatting of comments after the last symbol in an import node
renamed str:xyz builtins to string:xyz for uniformity with the standard library
string:find takes an optional third argument, startIndex (where to start the lookup from, default 0
list:setAt can work with negative indexes, and is now bound checked
re-enabled the AST optimizer, only used for the main arkscript executable (not enabled when embedding arkscript, so that one can grab variables from the VM)
loops have their own scope: variables created inside a loop won't leak outside it
upgraded fmtlib to 11.1.3-13
allow capture in nested scope (before it was targeting only the current scope)
-bcr option can be given a source file, it will then be compiled before its bytecode is shown
magic numbers for tables start in bytecode files have been changed from 0x01, 0x02, 0x03 to 0xA1, 0xA2, 0xA3 (symbols, values, code) to make them stand out in hex editors
magic numbers for value types in bytecode files have been changed from 0x01, 0x02, 0x03 to 0xF1, 0xF2, 0xF3 (number, string, function)
numbers in the values table in bytecode files are no longer turned to string, but their IEEE754 representation is now encoded on 12 bytes (4 for the exponent, 8 for the mantissa)
changed how scopes are stored inside the VM to enhance performances. All scope data are now contiguous!
when possible, accessing variables from the current scope is compiled to a new instruction LOAD_SYMBOL_BY_INDEX, to avoid the sometimes expansive lookup by id
- this works inside normal scopes (introduced by while loops) and functions scopes, but not for closures
VM stack size is now 4096 instead of 8192
Ark::CodeError now takes a CodeErrorContext to store the source (filename, line, column, expression) of an error
renamed string:format to format
io:removeFiles is now io:removeFile and works on a single file/path
renamed almost all builtins to prefix them with builtin__, to have them proxied in the standard library (to be able to import and scope them properly)
new super instruction CALL_BUILTIN_WITHOUT_RETURN_ADDRESS to optimize the proxied builtins, skipping the return address deletion
the VM no longer store a reference to the current function being called in the newly created scope
execution contexts can be reused for async calls if they are not active, to avoid constantly requesting memory and creating (heavy) contexts
- if there is more than 5 contexts, the 6th one will be destroyed once it completes
execution contexts are now marked as free to be reused (or deleted) once a value has been computed, without waiting for a call to await
captures are not renamed anymore by the NameResolutionPass (which used to fully qualify captured names when possible, which isn't desirable: when you capture &foo, you expect to be able to use .foo not .module:foo)
when loading a module, its mappings are loaded in the current scope instead of the global scope
argument order in the CLI changed: the file to run (and its optional script arguments) are now last, to be more consistent with all the other existing tooling (Python, Docker...)
VM stack size has been upped to 4096 + 256, to have a buffer to be able to catch stack overflows without hindering performances too much
we can not create a variable in a function, shadowing said function, to prevent weird bugs when trying to do recursion for example

Removed

removed unused NodeType::Closure
removing the custom string, replacing it with std::string (the format engine of the custom string had a lot of memory leaks)
Utils::digPlaces and Utils::decPlaces got removed as they were no longer needed
removed deprecated code (list:removeAt, ark executable now replaced by arkscript)
removed VM::getUserPointer and VM::setUserPointer
removed ARK_PROFILER_COUNT define
removed useless \0 escape in strings
removed termcolor dependency to rely on fmt for coloring outputs
removed and and or instructions in favor of a better implementation to support short-circuiting
removed LET and MUT instructions in favor of a single new STORE instruction
removed SAVE_ENV instruction
removed Value VM::resolve(const Value* val, Args&&... args), which has been deprecated in ArkScript v3.4.0

[3.5.0] - 2023-02-19

Added

added fuzzing tools and corpus for AFL
added some tests for errors
added recursion limit reached detection

Changed

plugins can be constructed from outside ArkScript lib/modules folder, easing the development process
plugins loading now works as intended: look alongside the given file/bytecode file, then in the std lib folder
new way to create modules, easier to use
calling a non-callable anonymous object do not result in a segfault
macro processor function registering now handles empty nodes
added a fix to avoid crashes when capturing unbound variables
checking if the given operator takes one or more arguments at compile time
adding bound checking on operator @
adding bound checking on operator @ when used in macros
better arity check for macros
fixed a bug in the macro processor where macros were deleted when they shouldn't
fixed a bug where macro functions with no argument would crash the macro processor

[3.4.0] - 2022-09-12

Added

added new async and await builtins
- they can access the outer scope
added methods to create and destroy an execution context and a future in the VM
added new CLI option --ast to generate JSON from the generated abstract syntax tree
added an AST to JSON compiler
added warnings on unused functions/quotes and statements without any effect

Changed

printing a closure will now print its fields instead of Closure<1432>
macros are always evaluated, even when they aren't any user defined macro
argcount works on symbols and anonymous functions

Deprecated

deprecating Value VM::resolve(const Value* val, Args&&... args)

Removed

removed the std::ostream& operator<< of the Value, now using the .toString(stream, vm reference)
removed the global VM lock
removed coz and ARK_PROFILER

[3.3.0] - 2022-07-02

Added

running the modules tests in the CI
new bytecode instruction POP, removing the last value from the stack
more documentation about ArkScript and its modules
more tests for the io builtins
added lines and code coloration in the error context
added documentation about the compiler implementation
added documentation about the virtual machine
ArkScript now supports LTO if the compiler can do it
- this is disabled in GCC 8 as this causes a runtime crash due to an ABI breakage

Changed

fixed underline bug in the error context
moved the frame counter of the VM to the ExecutionContext as this should be local to the context, not to the VM
changing the way we count received arguments in arity / type errors for failed function call
the CLI can now take a list of paths to the standard library, separated by ';'

[3.2.0] - 2022-02-19

Added

running the modules tests in the CI
new bytecode instruction POP, removing the last value from the stack
the compiler can finally optimize tail calls
suggesting symbols to the user when the compiler encounters an unbound symbol

Changed

the compiler can now remove unused values from the stack
enhancing the compiler code
removing bloat in the parser methods argument's lists

[3.1.3] - 2022-01-29

Added

adding an ExecutionContext to host the pointers (instruction, page, stack) and execution related structures (stack, locals, scopes), to ease the transition to a parallelized VM
- the VM can have multiple independent context running on the same bytecode
the VM now takes a reference to an Ark::State instead of a raw non-owning pointer
adding ARK_PROFILER_MIPS to toggle instruction per second calculation
adding new way to typecheck in builtins
new CI build step now running valgrind to check for memory leaks
new type checker (to be used by builtins)
better type errors generation (with the list of arguments, if they are matching or not, and more)

Changed

splitting Utils.hpp into multiple files for easier maintenance and contextualisation
reserving a default scope size of 3, which yields good performance results compared to nothing being reserved
upgrading the builtins error handling to use the BetterTypeError
the VM now displays the debug info (ip, pp, sp) at the end of the backtrace instead of the beginning

Removed

BetterTypeError has been removed in favor of a type checker using templates and an error generator

Deprecated

deprecating VM(State*) in favor of VM(State&)

[3.1.2] - 2021-11-02

Added

adding support for append_in_place, concat_in_place, pop_list and pop_list_in_place in the bytecode reader
added page_ptr(int) in the compiler to replace &page(int)
added literals _u8 and _u16
added table overflow detection in the compiler, to avoid creating unusable bytecode (checks if the symbols/values table is full or not)
new Installer.iss (inno setup script) to generate a Windows installer
new exceptions for type errors

Changed

using doc_formatting.first_column instead of doc_formatting.start_column when displaying the CLI help
brand new cmake build system
renaming Ark/Config.hpp to Ark/Platform.hpp
refactored compiler handling of keywords
removed using Inst_t = uint8_t in the compiler
moved everything related to the AST in Ark/Compiler/AST/
moved everything related to the macros in Ark/Compiler/Macros/
renamed unclear file CValue to ValTableElem
the parser is now an internal class
the AST Optimizer was moved to Compiler/AST
changed the ARKSCRIPT_PATH to be a collection of paths to look into, separated by ;
updating replxx to avoid a bug when compiling with clang

Removed

removed ARK_SCOPE_DICHOTOMY flag so that scopes don't use dichotomy search but a linear one, since it proved to be faster on small sets of values. This goes toward prioritizing small functions, and code being cut in multiple smaller scopes
removing download-arkscript.sh from the repo
removed isFraction, isInteger, isFloat from Ark/Utils.hpp (worked on strings and used regex)
removed mpark::variant to use standard variant
Ark::FeatureFunctionArityCheck was removed, making arity checks mandatory

[3.1.1] - 2021-09-19

Added

ArkDoc documentation for the builtins
Now using clang-format to ensure the code is correctly formatted

Changed

the macro processor can now handle multiple macro definitions in an if-macro: !{if true { !{a 1} !{b 2} }} is finally working

Deprecated

ark command is now marked as deprecated, in favor of arkscript

[3.1.0] - 2021-06-29

Added

lists are mutated in place if they are mutable, through append! and concat!
instructions for pop and pop! were added, to replace list:removeAt

Changed

list:removeAt was deprecated

[3.1.0] - 2021-06-29

Added

adding of new string function for manipulation of utf8 string (str:ord and str:chr)
utf8 support for lexer
UserType::del(), used only by the virtual machine to free memory
a new unique stack based on a std::array<Value, ARK_STACK_SIZE>, the default stack size being 8192
more profiling tests
more options on the display() method of the bytecode reader, allowing us to selecto segment of bytecode instead of displaying everything
added a new token type: Spread ; it handles ...identifier, needed in macros
the parser can now handle macros definitions
macros are being handled right after the parsing, before the AST optimizer can run
- if macros: !{if compile-time-value then [optional else]}
- values macros: !{name value}
- functions macros: !{name (a b c ...args) body}
sys:platform, containing the current platform name
updated the CLI so that we can slice the bytecode when displaying it
the bytecode reader can now display
- all the segments
- only the values segment
- only the symbols segment
- only the code segment (all of them or a given one)
- only the segments' titles and length
verifying that we give enough arguments
we can now import macros from other files
undefined macros is now possible by using !{undef macro_name}
str:join added in the standard library
str:split can now take longer separators
added symcat in macros to concatenate a symbol and a number/string/symbol to create a new one
added argcount in macros to count (at compile time) the number of arguments of a function
fixed a bug where (bloc) and (print bloc), given a !{bloc value} macro, didn't give the same result (one was applied, the other was partial)
new module to manipulate bits: bitwise
enhanced standard library

Changed

updating doxyfile and some docstrings
updating the download script
enhancing examples
creating a Scope allocates 4 pairs instead of 2, reducing the number of reallocations needed
tailOf renamed to tail and headOf to head ; no need to keep the relics of the past
headOf (now head) returns the real head of a container (List or String), the first element (nil if the list is empty, "" if the string is empty)
the http module was updated to add http:params:toList and fix the http:server:[method] when passing a function
fixing the compiler when we encounter get fields in lists
updating the parser to support usually invalid constructions when they are in macros, to allow things like !{defun (name args body) (let name (fun args body))}
updated the lexer to add UTF8 support and allow unconventional identifiers as long as they aren't keyword nor operators, so things like -> now works
fixing the code optimizer to avoid removing unused variables which are defined on function calls
fixed the traceback generation on errors, it should now display the correct function names
reorganizing the compiler code
reorganizing the parser code to make it more maintainable
adding make_node<T> and make_node_list internally to avoid repetitive code
enhancing the parser atom method
enhancing the way we choose the subparser to use in the parser
avoid using std::endl if it's not useful
CI was split into multiple files to ease maintenance
moving ArkScript tests from tests/*.ark to tests/arkscript/*.ark
fixed macros adding useless begin blocks, sometimes breaking code generation from macros
moving std lib related tests into std/tests/
lists are mutated in place if they are mutable, through append and concat
fixed macro chaining
fixed lexer, which wasn't adding the last token it read under some specific conditions

Removed

~UserType, since we are doing manual memory management now
Frame were removed because they were giving bad performances
firstOf was removed because it's basically a (@ list 0) and it was doing the job of head
Ark::Utils::toString, our internal version of std::to_string
use of static in the MacroProcessor and in the NodeType to string conversion function
Ark::Logger was removed in favor of std::cout/cerr + termcolor

[3.0.15] - 2020-12-27

Added

new submodule, plasma-umass/coz (a profiler)
macros for profiling, enabled only if ARK_PROFILE is defined
cmake flags using -D to turn on/off sys:exec and the coz profiler
mpark::variant is now the default used instead of the default STL variant (faster, better, stronger, and its creator is quite a god)
new cmake flag, -DARK_SCOPE_DICHOTOMY=On|Off (default Off)
using internal only references to constants and symbols to reduce the number of useless copies of the value type

Changed

updated standard library
updated modules, adding hash
updated the error handlers to avoid errors (sigsegv) when handling errors (lexing, parsing, optimization and compilation error)
better error message at runtime when a plugin can not be found
fixes issue #203 (imports are ill-formed when given an absolute path)
fixes issue #205 (search for the standard library folder in more common places)
transitioning from C++ streams to printf
replaced the thirdparty/ folder with a git submodule in thirdparties/
now checking that a scope doesn't have our symbol before doing a mut operation (in dichotomy mode it was automatically handled, but not in linear mode)
enhancing the cmake defines (-DARK_XYZ) and the code using them
lighter Frame (from 40B to 32B), moved some unrelated logic from the frame to the virtual machine
(sys:exec) now returns the stdout output of the given command

[3.0.14] - 2020-11-26

Added

the parser can handle (let|mut a b.c) (bug fix)
f[ruv|no-ruv] CLI switch to control the optimizer (ruv stands for remove unused variables)
error message when we have too many parenthesis (at parse time)
error message when using an operator not right after a (
error message when we're capturing an unbound variable
added (sys:exit code) as a builtin
bytecode integrity checking through a sha256 in the header
tests for math:fibo and math:divs
added the ability to give scripts arguments, through sys:args

Changed

the parser checks if set is given a dot expression as an identifier (which is an error)
the parser should take in account captured variables as well, otherwise some variables are optimized while they are captured, resulting in runtime errors
better unbound variable error message
(implementation) every constructor with a single argument is now marked as explicit
REPL does not need to add extra surrounding {}
the Ark::State (re)compiles a file even if there is a bytecode version available
the parser is now stricter and gives better error messages when we give too many/not enough arguments to a keyword
better handling of the code given to the REPL (adds new line)
renamed the executable from Ark to ark
now using GitHub Actions instead of Travis
the parser can now detect when let/mut/set are fed too many arguments, and generate an error
the compiler now handles (set a b.c.d)
using a new plugin interface, more C-like

Removed

class Ark::internal::Inst which was used as a wrapper between uint8_t and Instruction
worthless examples were removed
removing f[no-]aitap since it wasn't used anymore in the code

[3.0.13] - 2020-10-12

Added

string tests
list tests
range tests
unbound variable checker at compile time (won't break on plugin symbols)

Changed

list:find returns -1 to stay consistent with str:find
hot fix (mut a 10) (let b 12) (set a b) (set a 11), the immutability was transferred from b to a
converting list, append and concat to instructions
instructions LIST CONCAT and APPEND added to replace the corresponding builtins

[3.0.12] - 2020-09-06

Added

using a macro to define the default filename (when none is given, e.g. when loading bytecode files or from the REPL)
PLUGIN <const id> instruction to load plugin dynamically and not when the VM boots up
updated search paths for (import "lib.ark"), looking in ./, lib/std/ and lib/
added a case to display NOT instructions in the bytecode reader
T& as<T>() in usertype
enhanced error message when calling a non-function object
eliminating unused global scope variables in the compiler
adding a new feature enabled by default: FeatureRemoveUnusedVars (not enabled for the REPL for obvious reasons)
added replxx as a submodule
added custom destructor to the user type, called when a scope is destroyed and when we use (del obj)
added a GVL (global virtual machine lock) to be able to use the VM in a multithreaded context
dockerfile + specific GitHub action to build and push stable and nightly docker images, thanks to @yardenshoham
added guards to the bytecode reader to stop reading if we're missing an entry point; now telling the user about it

Changed

updated the string module to benefit from the new format member function
updated the logger to remove fmt/format
changed the argument order for Ark::State
renamed the cache directory __arkscript__
operator @ can now handle negative indexes to get elements from the end of the given container
the standard library is now in another repository
moved the modules to lib/ext
the value of CODE_SEGMENT_START is again 0x03 (because we removed the plugin table)
renamed isDir? to dir? for consistency
the lexer is no longer using regexes but a char after char method
an ArkScript program is no longer a single bloc, but can be composed of multiple bloc, thus we don't need to use a single big {} or (begin) bloc for all the program
enhancing lexer and parser error messages
else clause in if constructions is now optional
updating error messages in the VM
updated the repl to add auto-completion, coloration and persistence by @PierrePharel
moving the parser, lexer and AST node to Compiler/ from Parser/
better import error messages at parsing
format can now handle any value type
updated the tests to use the new standard library, and testing every VM instruction and builtins (we didn't test everything before, this way we can be sure we don't break anything in the VM after each update)
renaming builtins to add a namespace to them (math:, sys:, str:, list: and such)
firstOf, tailOf and headOf now returns [] or "" instead of nil when they have nothing to do
adding a brand new scoping system, lighter, more powerful
str:find now returns the index where the substring was found
str:removeAt was fixed to throw an error when the index is strictly equal to the length of the string (can not work since accessing elements in string is 0-index based)

Removed

removed fmt/format from our dependencies
PLUGIN_TABLE was removed to use the PLUGIN instruction
not_() from usertype
removed Parser/Utf8Converter

[3.0.11] - 2020-06-21

Added

member function resolve(Args&& args...) to Value, callable by plugins to resolve the value of a function called with specific arguments given by the plugin
(fill qu value) create a list of qu values
(setListAt list at new-value) modify a list in place and return the new list value
adding UTF-8 support in programs (experimental)
more benchmarks
on error, the VM now display the value of each variable in the current scope
added thirdparty/madureira/String, to replace std::string in Ark::internal::Value which was heavy and slower than the new implementation
minimizing the size of the usertype

Changed

UserType does not need to be given a manually defined type id but relies on typeid(T)
performance boost of the VM by using pointers to avoid unnecessary copies
renaming isNaN to NaN?, isInf to Inf? for uniformization (see empty?, nil?)
renaming CLI feature options:
- -ffunction-arity-check becomes -ffac, same for the -fno- version
- -fauthorize-invalid-token-after-paren becomes -faitap, some for the -fno- version
improving compiler performances by using const ref when passing nodes around
renaming the FFI "builtins" because it's not an FFI but a set of functions using the VM API
the VM should display a backtrace even if an unknown error occurred
transforming inline code from the vm into not inline code when possible to speed compilation, using macros instead of inline functions
smaller value class
smaller vm frames
forked madureira/String and modified it for the needs of the project, added it as a submodule
removed the VM pointer from the value class to make it lighter, now the VM is sending a pointer of itself to the C procedures
removed const and type from value, now using an uint8_t to store this information

Removed

removed NFT from the internal API to rely only on the value type

[3.0.10] - 2020-02-09

Added

adding sort to sort a list
added \t, \n, \v and \r escape codes (available in strings only)
adding listFiles which returns a list of paths (strings)
adding (makeDir path) and (removeFiles ...)
added (filter func list) in lib/Functional/Functional.ark
adding puts. Does the same thing as print but doesn't print a newline character
added a msgpack module by @PierrePharel
added a user type (to be defined in C++)
adding a not operator
adding an http module by @SuperFola

Changed

updated output of tests with number of passed tests
updated REPL so that it doesn't try to compile blank lines or comments, by @rstefanic
the option -d|--debug is now repeatable, to set a debug level. Can go from 1 (compilation information) to 3 (a lot of information).
better precision when using (time)
better tests presentation
moved the modules to https://github.com/ArkScript-lang/modules

[3.0.9] - 2019-10-27

Added

fixing segfault when the VM receives an empty code page (generated from an empty block)
(print (fun () ())) will now print Function @ 1 instead of just its page addr, 1
(if true () ()) now returns nil (can be generalized to () -> nil)
anonymous functions are now available ; eg: ((fun () (print "a")))
added forEach in library
added -c|--compile option to the CLI so that we can only compile an ArkScript file instead of compiling and running it, by @DontBelieveMe
added min and max in lib/Math/Arithmetic.ark, by @FrenchMasterSword
added reduce in lib/Functional/Reduce.ark, by @FrenchMasterSword
added product in lib/List/Product.ark, by @FrenchMasterSword

Changed

a quoted code (deferred evaluation) isn't capturing anymore surrounding variables' values, thus increasing greatly performances
lists are printed like ["string" 1 true] now, instead of ( string 1 true )
updated zip so that it can work with lists of different sizes, by @FrenchMasterSword
better cyclic includes detection
better VM error message when redefining a variable through let

[3.0.8] - 2019-10-22

Added

it's now possible to compare Values using operator<
reverseList (added to the FFI) by @rinz13r
a warning will now pop up during compilation if code appears to be ill-formed (e.g. number/string/list right after a ()
option -f(allow-invalid-token-after-paren|no-invalid-token-after-paren) was added (default: OFF)

Changed

the internal API used to compare values has been updated to be much shorter
the REPL can take into account the lib directory, by @rstefanic
isNaN and isInf should work on any type but return false if they aren't numbers
replacing Ark with ArkScript in source code and files (Ark being the shortname for ArkScript, as JS is the shortname for Javascript)
findInList now returns nil when the object can not be found, otherwise it returns its index in the list

[3.0.7] - 2019-10-15

Added

cos, arccos, sin, arcsin, tan, arctan
E (exp 1), Pi, Tau (2 * Pi), NaN, Inf
isNaN, isInf
exp, ln (standard logarithm), pow, sqrt
ceil, round, floor
zip, map, sum
REPL, made by @rstefanic

Changed

moved the lib files in subfolders to be more organized
re-updating the import rules on the parser side to be able to import files in subfolders from the standard library
updating naming convention of the modules

[3.0.6-b] - 2019-10-09

Added

adding lib/Functional.ark to store (compose f g)

Changed

the VM now deletes all scopes except the global one in case of failure, when the persisting flag is set
fixing plugin importation

[3.0.6] - 2019-10-07

Added

function arity handling in the VM, can be disabled with the option -fno-function-arity-check
sliceStr in lib/Slice.ark, taking a string, a starting index (can't be less than 0), and the length (can't be less than 1), returning a portion of the given string
reverseStr in lib/Reverse.ark taking a string and returning it in reverse

Changed

updated the include module, which was randomly adding / before the path of the files
dispatched the unit tests in multiple files
now using a separated class to hold the description values for the VM
updated assertions in split in lib/Split.ark (works only with single character separators)
fixing import bug

[3.0.5] - 2019-10-04

Added

the parser can now recognize expressions like ((f f) x)
we can now create Ark::Value with floats

Changed

the init() internal method of the VM shouldn't stop when a bound function isn't used in the code, just ignore it
the compiler shouldn't crash on a bad code block
better line counter in lexer
the VM shouldn't try to run a non-existing bytecode file if the compilation fails (when calling doFile())
VM.call should return nil if the stack is empty, otherwise it results in a vector subscript out of range and that's bad
the SFML plugin was updated to run on Windows

[3.0.4] - 2019-09-01

Added

with the option -L|--lib we can set the path to the ArkScript standard library
we can now load C++ lambdas into the ArkVM, as well as C++ functions
adding function sleep, taking a duration in milliseconds
adding function system, taking a command from a string ; can be deleted if ARK_ENABLE_SYSTEM is set to 0 in the CMakeLists

Changed

updating CMakeLists.txt to avoid building unuseful stuff from Google benchmark
toNumber doesn't raise an unrecoverable error but returns nil if the conversion failed
print no longer add a space between each element
updating the way the builtins are handled (in VM/FFI) to make it easier to add functions

Removed

doc folder, now everything is on the wiki

[3.0.3] - 2019-08-23

Added

should be able to compare lists
chained operators: (+ 1 2 3) is automatically expanded (at compile time) into (+ (+ 1 2) 3) by the compiler

Changed

some functions playing with list should also be able to play with Strings: headof, tailof, firstof, len, empty?, @
firstof should segfault when the list/String is empty
fixing type of nil to be "Nil" instead of nil when using (type nil)
using uniformed names of builtins: pascal case (impacted functions are firstOf, headOf and tailOf, as well as hasField)
fixing bug with writeFile when sending a mode: the mode was also the content of the file, it no longer is

[3.0.2] - 2019-08-22

Added

cmake options ARK_BUILD_EXE and ARK_BUILD_BENCHMARK to choose what to build
when the VM crash, displaying stack trace
added function time to the FFI (time in seconds since epoch)
adding VM.doFile

Changed

updated the VM to be able to call functions defined in ArkScript from C++
del sym set sym to undefined (internal value only, not the undefined of Javascript) instead of nil
fixed imports
fixed automatic compilation of not-up-to-date files

Removed

flag -c|--compile to force compilation was not useful

[3.0.1] - 2019-07-25

Added

we can now call functions captured by closures, inside the scope of the closure, using the dot notation

Changed

the CLI is checking the timestamp of the file to know if it should recompile it or not
the CLI knows if it should recompile the given file or not

[3.0.0] - 2019

Added

adding del and mut keywords. Now let is for settings constants and mut for variables. Also, it isn't possible to use let to define the same constant twice
google/benchmark library for the benchmarks
ArkScript version section in bytecode
timestamp (build date)
major versions of the compiler and the virtual machine used must match, a compatibility across versions will be kept if they have the same major number
many opcodes to handle the operators
persist flag for the VM (if persist is false (default value), each time we call vm.run(), the frames will be reset)
adding captures through functions arguments: (fun (&captured std-argument) (...))
adding closure fields reading (readonly)

Changed

moved everything from the "folder namespaces" to a single Ark::internal namespace
using # instead of ' for the comments, using ' to quote instead of `
the lexer is now detecting the type of the tokens it's playing with
using std::runtime_errors instead of exit(1) when an error occurred
the VM should throw an error if we try to use set on a constant
we can avoid passing all the arguments to a function, they will just be undefined
the CLI is now able to determine if it should compile & run, run from the arkscript cache or run the file as a bytecode file

Removed

Lexer::check, we should see if the program is correct when building the AST
removed from the bytecode NEW_ENV

[2.2.0-dev] - 2019-06-01

Added

option in the CMakeLists.txt to use MPIR or not (defaults to no MPIR)
information about the compilation options used for ArkScript in the CLI
we can now use ` to quote

Changed

using a vector instead of a map in the Frame to speed up things
using double or MPIR depending on the compilation options
moving mod in the FFI
renamed methods in Node

Removed

Defer.ark from the standard library
supporting both BigNum and double is a bad idea, using only double now
removed the interpreter

[2.1.0-dev] - 2019-05-05

Added

adding switch and defer1 in the standard library (defer1 shall be rewritten using quote)
keyword quote, macro version is `
added VM::get(name) to retrieve values from the top stack of the Virtual Machine. Types currently supported are Ark::BigNum, std::string and bool
adding mod in the standard library
module sfml, need the SFML 2.5
adding @, and, or and headof in the FFI
adding a guard in the VM to be sure the builtins are all present in the VM FFI

Changed

the frames stack is handled differently, using shared pointers to avoid unnecessary copies of frame's environments, it improves execution speed by a lot
new CLI
handling floating pointer numbers and rational numbers

[2.0.0-dev] - 02-05-2020

Added

configure.py script, to download, build and install mpir 3.0.0
builtins functions: input, toNumber, toString
breaking change adding PLUGIN_TABLE_START with a value of 3 in the compiler/VM
adding plugins management

Changed

split lib/Exceptions.ark into lib/Exceptions.ark and lib/Either.ark
renamed FindGMP FindMPIR, and we're now searching for MPIR and linking with it
proper exception handling
the VM shouldn't throw a runtime error if it can't link a function name and a function address
breaking change the CODE_SEGMENT_START is now equal to 4
fixing a bug in the bytecode reader: it didn't handle NOP
import should be able to load plugins, also import takes only one argument now
breaking change POP_JUMP_IF_FALSE is now an absolute jump as well
upgrading CMakeLists to add -rpath option to the linker (with GCC), so that it still finds the lib after being installed

Removed

hastype keyword because I never had to implement compile time typechecking, so it's not useful

[1.2.2-dev] - 2019-05-02

Added

adding import keyword (handled by parser), throwing an error if a cyclic included is detected

Changed

CMakeLists.txt to add install rules: installing ArkScript in bin/ and the ArkScript standard library in share/.Ark/lib/
updated documentation

[1.2.1-dev] - 2019

Added

runtime typechecking
exceptions (in the C++ ArkScript API)

Changed

updated the FFI to add the runtime typechecking
micro optimization: using numbers as variable names internally, instead of strings

Removed

unnecessary destructors removed to let the compiler auto generate T(T&&) (to avoid implicitly using T(const T&))

[1.2.0-dev] - 2019

Added

syntactic sugar handling in the parser
GMP lib to handle very large number
REPL (can be launched from the CLI)
tests

Changed

changed syntax: using {...} as a (begin ...) and [...] as a (list ...)
updated documentation according the new syntax
the lexer is now using a Token structure to store the line and column as well as the token itself
generating the FFI using include/Ark/MakeFFI.hpp, everything defined in one file to avoid having 2 files to update
tests

Removed

dozerg::HugeNumber, it was too slow

[1.1.0-dev] - 2019

Added

test.cpp to try to embed ArkScript into a C++ project
updated the documentation
the compiler can now return a read only version of the bytecode being executed
the VM can take a bytecode or a filename
OOP test with ArkScript using closures
closures support
Types.hpp (for the VM) to store the definitions of the NFT (Nil/True/False enum class) and the PageAddr_t
Function.hpp to get a lambda from the interpreter and call it from C++ code

Changed

CMakeLists.txt, adding an option to chose between compiling main.cpp or test.cpp
moved the VM FFI into include/Ark/VM

[1.0.0-dev] - 2019

Added

beginning of the documentation
compiler (ark code to ark bytecode)
bytecode reader (human readable format)
dozerg::HugeNumber to handle big numbers
simple VM handling all the instructions, able to run an ark bytecode
interpreter and VM FFI
logger

[0.1.0-dev] - 2019

Added

Node (to represent an AST node and a Node in the language)
Environment to map variables and values
Program executing ArkScript code from the AST
standard library (builtin functions)
Lexer and parser
default CLI can handle the interpreter
tests
utils to play with files

[0.0.1-dev] - 2019

Added

utils to play with strings and numbers
default CLI (using clipp)
CMakeLists to compile the project
ryjen::format to format strings

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