Records the four-phase reorganisation that moved 2470 lines
out of lib.rs into purpose-named sibling submodules. Captures
the visibility model (descendant-module privacy + selective
pub(crate)), the deliberate non-extractions (lower_term, the
app/call cluster), and the framing as a navigability tidy
rather than a feature-driven change.
Closes two of the three queued debts from the 18g tidy in the
same session. Tag-conditional partial-drop helper stays queued
— substantial, no observable fixture, all current fallback paths
cleanly use shallow ailang_rc_dec.
The 18-arc + 18g sub-arc + 18g tidy + post-tidy follow-ups are
all closed. Decision 9 has been re-framed to match the
orchestrator's dual-allocator stance (commit f10a77e). Next iter
is queue-driven; nothing load-bearing is open.
User's stance on the retirement question raised in 18f / 18g.2:
keep the dual-allocator setup. Boehm = default, RC = validated
alternative ready to flip. Re-opening trigger is operational
(maintenance cost), not performance.
Concrete consequences recorded: no default flip, -lgc stays, and
Decision 9's 'transitional' framing should be re-cast as 'dual
allocator' in a follow-up DESIGN.md edit (queued). Decision 10
holds as the canonical real-time path. The three RC-side debts
from the 18g tidy remain queued and don't block the dual stance.
Resolves the architect's drift report on the 18g sub-arc:
- DESIGN.md: ratify mode-metadata's codegen role. param_modes /
ret_mode were already on Type::Fn since 18a; with 18d.4 / 18g
they became load-bearing for drop-emission decisions in
codegen. The new 'Mode metadata is load-bearing for codegen'
subsection records the four seams (Iter A + Iter B + 18g.1 +
18g.2) and names the let-alias-of-borrow carve-out the gates
do not propagate through.
- bench/run.sh: post-throughput, invoke bench/latency_harness.py
on the three canonical arms (Implicit @ gc, explicit @ rc,
Implicit @ rc control). The Boehm-retirement bench numbers
are now reproducible by anyone running the harness, not just
by hand on a specific host.
- Negative coverage: examples/rc_let_implicit_returning_app
+ alloc_rc_let_binder_for_implicit_returning_app_does_not_drop
pin the asymmetry to the (own)-ret-mode test (live=0 there,
live=1 here). The Borrow-ret-mode case is covered by the
language design itself — typechecker rejects 'borrow-
passthrough' shapes with consume-while-borrowed.
JOURNAL entry records four items as deferred known debt:
emit_inlined_partial_drop dynamic-tag fallback, carve-out
diagnostics surface, bench-number stat-of-N, and the
cross-family ordering observation about CLAUDE.md's tidy-iter
rule.
The 18-arc is formally closed with this tidy. Next iter is
the orchestrator's Boehm-retirement decision (Path A vs Path B
from JOURNAL 2026-05-08 18f entry, joined by the post-18g.2
re-bench numbers).
Re-runs the latency bench post-18g.2 and records the result:
RC p99 = 311.6 µs (1.37× median), max = 348.2 µs (1.53× median);
Boehm p99 = 7249 µs (69.65× median), max = 7923 µs. RC is 23×
better on p99 and 23× better on max. RSS: RC 42 MB vs Boehm
66 MB — RC is now LOWER RSS, not higher. Median throughput: RC
is 2.18× slower (alloc-path tax).
Decision 10's real-time commitment has its evidence base. Boehm
retirement is now an orchestrator call between (A) 'retire,
accept the throughput tax until a slab allocator is built' and
(B) 'build the slab allocator first, retire after'. No commit
yet flips defaults.
Documents the 18-arc as complete on the correctness property:
explicit-mode RC reports live=0 on the canonical bench fixture
(allocs=11068575 frees=11068575). Remaining open work is
orchestrator-territory or queued (tag-conditional partial-drop,
let-alias-aware mode propagation, tidy-iter).
Records the diagnosis (18f.2 bencher finding -> tail-call drop
elision in match arms whose body consumes pattern-binders into
the tail-call), the new pre-tail-call seam in lower_match, the
opt-in rc-stats counter test infrastructure (18g.0), the TDD
record, and the end-to-end verification on bench_latency_explicit
(11M -> 1M live cells; the 1M residue is the persistent Tree
cache and queues as 18g.2).
Bencher ran the tail-latency bench post-RC-fix. Boehm's p99=7131µs
is 74× its median (96µs); explicit-mode RC's p99=453µs is 1.62× its
median (280µs). Decision 10's real-time claim has a first piece of
evidence on the correct axis (tail latency) — 18f's throughput
bench measured the wrong thing.
Surprise finding: explicit-mode RC leaks at the same RSS rate as
implicit-mode RC (511MB peak on both). The (own ...) +
(reuse-as) + (drop-iterative) annotations don't drive deallocation
in tail-recursive arms because pattern-binder t is consumed into
the tail-call (consume_count > 0, Iter A skips); the outer LCons
husk has all its ptr fields moved out but no drop site shallow-decs
it. Genuine 18d.4 implementation gap, queued as Iter 18g (#82).
Retirement decision (Path A vs Path B from 18f) still open; now
joined by the outer-cell-shallow-dec finding. Both feed the
eventual decision.
Iter B (Own-param dec at fn return) gates on param_modes[i] ==
ParamMode::Own and skips Implicit/Borrow because those modes carry
no caller-handed-off-ownership signal. Iter A (arm-close pattern-
binder dec) is the same shape — pattern-binders loaded out of a
scrutinee owe their drop-validity to the scrutinee's ownership —
but Iter A had no such gate and fired on every ptr-typed binder
with consume_count == 0.
Concrete failure (regression test): pin (params t) is Implicit,
caller loop holds t and re-passes it to itself. pin's (TNode v l r)
arm dec'd l and r, fragmenting the tree the caller still references.
Next recursion tripped ailang_rc_dec underflow.
Fix: thread current_param_modes onto the emitter, set it in
emit_fn from the fn type's param_modes (and reset/save it across
lambda thunk emission). In lower_match, derive scrutinee_is_owned
from the scrutinee's mode (Own only; let-binders and temps are
treated as owned) and skip Iter A when not owned.
Carve-out: a let-alias of a non-Own param is not yet detected;
the regression doesn't trigger it and a propagation pass belongs
in its own iter. Recorded in JOURNAL.
Red: alloc_rc_pattern_bind_in_implicit_fn_does_not_dec_borrowed_children.
Pre-fix the rc binary aborted with refcount underflow; post-fix
matches alloc=gc ("0").
Records the bench numbers (rc/bump 2.5–2.9x on the Implicit-mode
fixtures, missing Decision 10's 1.3x retirement target) and the
two paths forward — lower the threshold (Path A, pragmatic; rc
and gc are within 5% of each other so retirement under "RC ≤
Boehm ± 5%" qualifies) vs build a slab/pool allocator first
(Path B, larger iter, closes most of the gap to bump).
The 1.3x criterion was orchestrator-level commitment in
Decision 10 and not meeting it is a prompt for an orchestrator-
level discussion, not for the implementer to autonomously flip
the default. 18f deliberately stops without flipping default,
without dropping -lgc, without marking Decision 9 historical.
Records the schema additions (TypeDef.drop_iterative, serde-skip
when false), why heap-stretchy-buffer worklist was chosen over
slot-repurposing (not every box has a free ptr-slot to thread
through), the mono-typed worklist trade-off (simpler loop body,
small cross-type cascade penalty), the four new ABI symbols in
runtime/rc.c, and the validation against Decision 10's brief.
Validation note: hand-run confirmed the 1M-cell fixture with the
annotation exits 0; same fixture without the annotation SIGSEGVs
(exit 139). The annotation is load-bearing, not cosmetic.
Closes with the dispatch line for 18f (RC validation bench +
Boehm retirement decision) and reaffirms the post-18f tidy-iter
will be ailang-architect-driven drift cleanup over the whole
18-arc surface.
Records the two emission seams (pattern-binder at arm close,
Own-param at fn return), why they fit one iter (uniform
emission shape), the explicit dynamic-tag partial-drop fallback
to shallow ailang_rc_dec when moved_slots is non-empty for a
dynamic-runtime-ctor binder, the side effect on reuse_as_demo's
sum_list (correctness improvement, stdout unchanged, existing
assertions still hold), and the closing of 18d.3's regression.
Notes that 18d.3 + 18d.4 together close the move-aware-pattern
story for the static case; dynamic-tag partial-drop is the
remaining hygiene gap and is structurally orthogonal (would
exist even without moves). 18e (worklist) may be the natural
place to also close the dynamic-tag fallback.
Records strategy (b) (codegen-side bookkeeping, no source
mutation), why strategy (a) was retired (borrow contracts +
desugar re-scrutinise), the moved_slots side table and its
consumers (Term::Let close + reuse arm), and the narrow
memory-hygiene regression on borrow_only_recursive_list_drop
that 18d.4 will close. Also flags 18d.3 as the first iter to
ship with an undetected (no valgrind in CI) memory-hygiene
regression — accepted with explicit follow-up iter, not
papered over.
Records the runtime refcount-1 dispatch design (Lean 4 / Roc
lineage), why the dispatch lives at codegen rather than in
runtime/rc.c (per-site decision, no new ABI), the new
reuse_shape pre-codegen pass with its five reason sub-codes,
and — crucially — the explicit field-cleanup scope cut. The
reuse arm does not dec old pointer-typed fields because the
canonical fixture's pattern-bound subterms alias the new field
values (`(reuse-as xs (Cons _ (map_inc t)))` returns t's
in-place-rewritten box as the new tail). The root cause is
upstream: pattern-matching does not null out source slots. 18d.2
ships the perf-only half (alloc + outer cascade elided);
18d.3 / 18e closes the leak with move-aware patterns.
Records the schema floor (Term::ReuseAs wrapper, identity
codegen), the three diagnostics that close the
schema-permits-meaningless-forms gap (reuse-as-non-allocating-
body, reuse-as-source-not-bare-var, use-after-consume), and the
"source-not-bare-var rule lives in linearity, not typecheck"
design point — that constraint is a use-rule about reuse
semantics, not a type-rule, so it sits in the linearity pass
where it's gated on the all-explicit-mode activation. Closes
with the dispatch note for 18d.2 (in-place rewrite under
--alloc=rc, plus reuse-as-shape-mismatch diagnostic).
Records the drop-symbol scheme (uniform @drop_<m>_<T> for every
ADT, even no-boxed-children ones; pair+env drop fns for escaping
closures), field_drop_call's per-type dispatch and the three
fall-back cases (Str / Fn / Type::Var), the unchanged Term::Let
emission gates, and the explicit deferral of stack-recursion to
18e's worklist allocator. Also lists the four known-debt items
(stack-recursive drop, closure-typed ADT fields, Type::Var
fields, fn parameters) so 18d's design surface is clear.
Records the inference's max-over-paths semantics, the codegen
gates (consume_count == 0, body-tail-not-binder,
block-not-terminated, non-escape membership), the @-prefix elide
on closure-pair globals, the rc_box_drop fixture's choice of a
no-boxed-children ADT (shallow free sufficient), and the explicit
scope cut for per-type drop fn (18c.4). Closes with the dispatch
note for 18c.4 and the reminder that the new CLAUDE.md tidy-iter
rule fires after 18f when the 18-arc closes.
Records what shipped in 18c.2 (activation gate, two diagnostic
codes, position model, the new parse_term / term_to_form_a
round-trip in ailang-surface, gate on clean-typecheck), the
three known false negatives that are deliberate scope cuts
(missing-consume-of-Own, lam captures conservative, pattern
bindings start fresh), and the dispatch for 18c.3 (uniqueness
inference + codegen inc/dec — the iter where RC actually starts
collecting memory).
User correction during the post-RC-overnight check-in: the 18a
"Type::Fn metadata vs. new Type variant" call was justified
across DESIGN.md, JOURNAL, and the commit message primarily by
"avoids ~250 match-arm sites". That is an observation about the
current state of the code, not a design rationale.
CLAUDE.md gains two binding rules:
- Design rationale ≠ implementation effort. Effort is at most a
tiebreaker; a choice whose only stated reason is effort is
suspect. The rule names the 18a misstep as the canonical
anti-example so future sessions catch it earlier.
- Direction freedom + bounce-back conditions inlined (was
previously a cross-reference to a private auto-memory file
outside the repo, which the user couldn't see).
DESIGN.md Decision 10's Schema-additions block now leads with
the substantive reasons for per-position metadata: semantic
locality (modes belong to fn-parameter positions, not to types
in general — Decision 1 line); compositional clarity (type
identity vs. calling convention factor apart); future-proofing
(per-position metadata generalises; Type-variant approach
combinatoric blows up). The match-arm count remains parenthetical,
explicitly named a tiebreaker.
JOURNAL records the correction itself — the mistake stays as a
data point because how design discipline corrupts is informative.
Records that 18c.1 ran zero-surprise (mechanical recursion at
~10 sites across 6 files), the future-work seam in codegen for
18c.3 is a single line (emit one rc_inc call before returning
the inner SSA reg), and 18c.2's linearity check should start
as 'green for borrow_own_demo' since that fixture's shape is
exactly what the check needs to accept.
Records that the codegen change was a one-line extension because
the 18a bump path had centralised the allocator-symbol decision
on fn_name(). Documents the runtime ABI (8-byte refcount header,
ailang_rc_alloc/inc/dec) and the deliberate no-inc/dec posture:
programs leak intentionally under --alloc=rc; 18c lights up the
actual reference counting.
Next-step plan for 18c is split into three sub-iters
(clone schema / linearity check / inference + codegen) since
each wants its own verification cycle.
Records the schema-choice rationale (per-position metadata on
Type::Fn vs new Type variants — the latter would be a 250-site
mechanical migration, the former is one iter), the
padding-on-read trick that kept construction sites unchanged,
and the forward-compat note on the new fixture's borrow+own
sharing pattern.
Replaces the earlier "RC + inference, no annotations" position
with a two-layer architecture: inference (intra-fn) + mandatory
LLM-author mode annotations on fn signatures (inter-fn). Adds
structured rationale for rejecting region inference (regions
assume stack-shaped lifetimes; real programs need
non-stack-shaped lifetimes for caches / memo tables) and linear
types as primary mechanism.
Schema additions enumerated for the 18-series:
Type::Borrow / Type::Own (Iter 18a)
Term::Clone (Iter 18c)
Term::ReuseAs (Iter 18d)
TypeDef.drop_iterative (Iter 18e)
Migration plan extended from 18a-d (4 iters) to 18a-f (6 iters).
JOURNAL records the regions excursion, the scope-shape reduction,
and the LLM-author lever as the structural advantage Decision 10
cashes in on.
Adds --alloc=<gc|bump> to ail build/run. Bump path links a 256MB
no-free arena C stub instead of libgc; IR is byte-identical except
for the @GC_malloc → @bump_malloc symbol swap. Bench harness times
two allocation-heavy workloads (list cons/sum and balanced tree
build/walk) under both modes.
Numbers (RUNS=5, median of 4):
bench_list_sum gc 0.141s bump 0.048s +194%
bench_tree_walk gc 0.103s bump 0.041s +151%
Bucket: large. ~60% of runtime is Boehm on these workloads —
upper bound for any realistic program. Both fixtures hold the
heap fully live, so the cost we're seeing is Boehm's allocate
path itself, not collection work; that fact narrows the design
space for the GC discussion.
- crates/ailang-codegen: AllocStrategy enum, three callsites and
the IR header parameterised.
- crates/ail/src/main.rs: --alloc flag plumbed; bump runtime
located + compiled on demand.
- runtime/bump.c: 256MB static arena, abort-on-overflow.
- examples/bench_list_sum, bench_tree_walk: accumulator-form
fixtures (textbook recursive sum was constructor-blocked).
- bench/run.sh: harness with Python timing helper (Arch's
/usr/bin/time isn't part of the base install).
No language-level changes; default --alloc=gc, all 141 workspace
tests green, all 5 IR snapshots unchanged, 11 prior fixtures
produce identical stdout.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds a conservative escape analysis that flags Term::Ctor and
Term::Lam allocations as non-escaping when they are bound by a
let, never flow to a fn arg / ctor field / tail-return / lambda
capture, and remain inside the allocating fn's frame. Codegen
lowers flagged sites to LLVM `alloca` instead of `@GC_malloc`;
escaping sites continue to use Boehm.
- escape.rs (new): name-based taint propagation; let-only
candidates; tail-position / app-arg / ctor-field / lam-capture
all taint.
- codegen: three sites switched (lower_ctor, lam env, closure
pair). Save/restore non_escape across lambda thunk emit.
- examples/escape_local_demo.{ailx,ail.json}: focused fixture
exercising both branches (peek and recursive count).
- e2e + escape unit tests: 133 → 141 (+8).
Stop-gate: 17a closes the queue. Memory-management discussion
(GC scope) is the next user-driven step. Per-fn arena observations
appended to JOURNAL — including the headline finding that 0/270
shipped allocations are flagged non-escaping under this rule
(real AILang threads ctors directly between fns; build-locally /
consume-locally is not idiomatic).
All existing fixture stdouts and content hashes bit-identical;
IR snapshots unchanged.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Lifts the Int-only restriction on `==`. Declared type becomes
forall a. Fn(a, a) -> Bool; codegen monomorphises and dispatches:
Int → icmp eq i64
Bool → icmp eq i1
Str → call @strcmp + icmp eq i32 0
Unit → constant true (operands still emitted for side effects)
ADT / Fn / other → CodegenError::Internal
This unblocks 16c's build_eq for non-Int lit patterns. == joins
__unreachable__ as the second polymorphic builtin (same Forall
machinery).
- check/builtins.rs: == registered as Forall(a, Fn(a, a) -> Bool).
- codegen: lower_eq dispatch table; @strcmp declared in IR header
alongside @printf/@GC_malloc/@puts.
- examples/eq_demo.{ailx,ail.json}: covers all four supported
scalars including a Str-lit-pattern match.
- IR snapshots refreshed: only +declare i32 @strcmp(ptr, ptr) in
the header; every define body bit-identical.
- e2e + check + codegen tests: 124 → 133 (+9, of which +1 is the
e2e fixture and the rest exercise the new dispatch / typecheck
surface).
Other comparison ops (<, <=, >, >=, !=) remain Int-only — out of
scope for this iter.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Eliminates the Unit-typed chain default that 16c left in place.
Adds __unreachable__ : forall a. a — codegen lowers to LLVM
unreachable. The 16a/16c chain machinery now uses it as the
deepest fall-through, so exhaustive matches with non-Unit arms
no longer need a (case _ ...) workaround.
- check/builtins.rs: register __unreachable__ as Forall(a, a).
- codegen: Term::Var "__unreachable__" emits LLVM unreachable
and sets block_terminated; If/Match/fn-body gate downstream
work on that flag.
- desugar: chain default switched from Lit{Unit} to Var.
- examples/lit_pat: categorize_first's trailing _ arm removed.
Hash changes from c4faec3abc2ed388 to 644de0c0ec15fc17.
- examples/unreachable_demo: positive fixture using safe_div
with __unreachable__ in the impossible branch.
- e2e + desugar tests: 122 → 124 (+2).
Path-a from 16b.2 planning: real primitive over a desugar-time
exhaustiveness pre-check (which would need cross-module type
registry access from desugar).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Inner LetRec capturing outer LetRec's params now lifts cleanly via
the existing post-order traversal — outer's params are KnownType
in inner's outer-scope, so 16b.2's fast-path handles them. Inner
LetRec capturing outer's NAME remains rejected (closure-of-self
in body, deferred separately).
Plus hardening: lift.rs's deferred path tracks the outer LetRec
name in a parallel `enclosing_letrec_names` set so the symmetric
inner-captures-outer-name rejection fires there too — without it
a silent lift produced a runtime arity mismatch.
- examples/nested_let_rec.{ailx,ail.json}: outer counts down via
inner that captures the outer's threshold param.
- desugar.rs: clarified panic message for outer-name capture.
- lift.rs: enclosing_letrec_names tracking.
- e2e + desugar tests: 120 → 122 (+2).
End-of-16b series: feature-complete except for closure-of-self
in body and closure-with-polymorphism, both queued separately.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Lifts the monomorphic-only restriction. Lifted top-level fn now
becomes Forall(α..., Fn(t..., T...) -> tr) when the enclosing fn
is polymorphic; capture types may mention outer type vars and
the existing mono pipeline (Iter 12b/14a) specializes them
correctly at call sites.
- desugar.rs / lift.rs: scope-building unified — Forall fn-params
are now KnownType, not LetBound. Lift wraps augmented_ty in
Forall mirroring the enclosing fn.
- Name-as-value-in-in-term in a polymorphic enclosing fn is
rejected (eta-Lam wrap from 16b.5 has no Forall). Queued
separately as closure-conversion-with-polymorphism.
- examples/poly_rec_capture.{ailx,ail.json}: apply_n_times :
Forall(a). drives at Int and Bool to exercise two mono
instantiations.
- e2e + check + desugar tests: 116 → 120 (+4).
Codegen pipeline untouched — apply_subst_to_type substitutes
through Fn.params uniformly (original params + appended captures).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Drops the direct-call-only restriction on the LetRec name when it
appears in `in_term`. No new ABI: the lift wraps the in-term in
`(let f (lam P (app f$lr_N P CAPTURES)) in_term')` so codegen's
existing Iter-8b closure-pair machinery handles it. Body-position
name-as-value still rejected (deferred — eta-of-self is harder).
- desugar.rs / lift.rs: split find_non_callee_use into body
(panic) and in_term (wrap).
- examples/local_rec_as_value.{ailx,ail.json}: no-capture path
(factorial passed to apply5 → 120).
- examples/local_rec_as_value_capture.{ailx,ail.json}: capture
path; lifted fn has captures, eta-Lam picks them up via 8b.
- e2e + desugar tests: 113 → 116 (+3).
Codegen Lam machinery handled the wrapped form on the first try.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Flips the desugar's MatchArm-capture rejection from panic to defer.
The 16b.3 lift_letrecs pass already handled match-arm bindings via
type_check_pattern_for_lift (Pattern::Var, Pattern::Ctor with sub-
patterns, ctor-field substitution against scrutinee args), so this
iter is a single-line classification change in desugar plus the
fixture and tests that exercise it.
- desugar.rs: MatchArm classification now defers (same arm as
LetBound); EnclosingLetRec panic remains for 16b.7.
- examples/local_rec_match_capture.{ailx,ail.json}: enclosing fn
pattern-matches on Pair<Int,Int>, inner LetRec captures both
match-arm bindings simultaneously. Lifts to
loop$lr_0(i: Int, threshold: Int, n: Int) -> Int.
- e2e + check + desugar tests: 110 → 113 (+3).
First fixture lifting more than one capture; subst_call_with_extras
already handled it generically.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds path-2 from the 16b.2 planning entry. Desugar now defers
LetRecs whose captures include Term::Let-bound names; a new
ailang-check::lift_letrecs pass runs after typecheck and uses the
elaborated env to resolve capture types. ailang-check learns a real
Term::LetRec typing rule in synth and verify_tail_positions.
- desugar: Term::LetRec arm gains a defer-arm; helpers promoted to
pub for reuse by the lift pass; find_non_callee_use moved before
classification.
- ailang-check::synth/verify_tail_positions: real LetRec rules
(effect-subset, locals install, recursive name in body+in_term).
- ailang-check::lift.rs (new, 720 LOC): post-typecheck lift with
post-order traversal, env-walk for capture-type resolution,
fast-path skip when no LetRec is present.
- ail::main.rs: build path now does load → check → desugar →
lift_letrecs → codegen.
- examples/local_rec_let_capture.{ailx,ail.json}: new fixture
capturing a let-bound `threshold` in a recursive helper.
- e2e + check unit tests: 106 → 110 (+4).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Lift 16b.1's no-capture restriction. The desugar pass's `scope`
becomes a `BTreeMap<String, ScopeEntry>` carrying `KnownType` for
fn/Lam-params, sentinels for Let-/Match-bindings. LetRec captures
of `KnownType` names are lifted: the synthetic top-level fn's
signature gets the capture types appended, and every call site of
the LetRec name is rewritten via `subst_call_with_extras` to pass
the captures positionally. Captures from let-bindings, match-arm
patterns, polymorphic enclosing fns, and name-as-value uses are
rejected at desugar with panics pointing at 16b.3-16b.7.
Demo: `sum_below(n)` recurses via `(let-rec loop (params i) ...
(body ... uses n ...) (in (app loop 1)))`. Lifts to
`loop$lr_0(i: Int, n: Int) -> Int` with `(app loop X)` rewritten
to `(app loop$lr_0 X n)`. Outputs 0, 10, 45.
Tests: 103 -> 106 (+1 e2e local_rec_capture_demo, +2 desugar unit;
the 16b.1 capture-panic test was repurposed into the positive
fn-param-capture test).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Orchestrator-level planning artifact, not an iteration log.
Captures the design space for 16b.2 so the user can review
trade-offs before implementation. Three architectural paths
considered (desugar-only with restrictions, post-typecheck pass,
mini-inference inside desugar); recommends the first as the
incremental path. Lists restrictions for the safe subset
(fn/Lam-param captures only, direct-call only, monomorphic
enclosing fn, single-level LetRec) and queues the lifted
restrictions as 16b.3-16b.7. Adjacent open items (16d chain
terminator, 16e == extension) likewise scoped.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Desugar `Pattern::Lit` (top-level and nested in Ctor) to
`Term::If { cond = (== sv lit), then = body, else_ = fall_k }`.
After 16c, no Pattern::Lit survives the desugar pass; codegen
and typechecker never see one. `is_flat` reclassifies Lit as
non-flat to force the chain machinery; new `build_eq` helper
constructs the equality test per literal kind.
Tests: 99 → 103 (+1 e2e lit_pat_demo, +3 desugar unit). Demo
fixture exercises top-level lit arms (classify) and nested
lit-in-Ctor (categorize_first) with a local IntList; output
100/200/999/-1/0/7.
Known limitations documented in DESIGN.md and JOURNAL: (a)
chain machinery's Unit terminator means non-Wild-terminated
exhaustive matches with lit arms still need a trailing `_`
catch-all to type-check; (b) `==` is currently Int-only, so
Bool/Str/Unit lit patterns desugar correctly but error at
typecheck.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add `(let-rec NAME (params ...) (type ...) (body ...) (in ...))`
as a form-A surface and a `Term::LetRec` AST variant. The 16a
desugar pass lifts each LetRec whose body has no captures from
the enclosing scope to a synthetic top-level fn `<hint>$lr_N`
and substitutes the original name; typecheck and codegen never
see LetRec. Capture detection panics at desugar time, queued
for 16b.2.
Tests: 95 → 99 (+1 e2e local_rec_factorial_demo, +2 desugar
unit, +1 parse unit). The new fixture `examples/local_rec_demo`
runs `fact` at n=1, 3, 5 → prints 1, 6, 120.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds the two canonical prefix-slicing combinators to std_list.
First fns in std_list to combine `if` + Int arithmetic + recursive
ADT pattern in one body.
take : forall a. (Int, List<a>) -> List<a>
— first n elements (or all of xs if shorter than n).
drop : forall a. (Int, List<a>) -> List<a>
— list with first n elements removed (Nil if n >= length).
Both use `(if (<= n 0) ...)` as the base-case guard since
literal sub-patterns inside Ctor patterns aren't yet supported
(queued as 16c — would let take/drop collapse the if into the
match).
examples/std_list_more_demo: builds [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] once and
exercises take/drop at n=0, n=mid, n=overflow on each. Expected
output 0, 3, 5, 5, 3, 0 (one per line).
Tests: 95/95 (e2e went from 35 to 36). std_list grew from 10 to
12 combinators; total stdlib 5 modules / 29 combinators. No new
compiler bug surfaced.
Pre-existing std_list defs are byte-identical (verified via diff
on .ailx and round-trip on .ail.json), so the five downstream
importers (std_list_demo, std_list_stress, std_either_list,
std_either_list_demo, list_map_poly) need no regeneration.
Fix the codegen asymmetry that 15g surfaced. unify_for_subst had an
arg-side-only early-return for $u-prefixed synth wildcards. The
function's prev-binding recursion can swap a $u from arg into param
position when re-unifying a previously-bound type against a fresh
arg. Reduced repro: `length [Left 1, Right 10]` — `a` first binds
to `Either<Int, $u>`, then the recursive unification against
`Either<$u, Int>` lands $u in param-pos[1] and falls through to
the catch-all error.
Fix is three lines: add a symmetric $u early-return for param side.
$u is a synth-only wildcard regardless of which side it ends up on
after the prev-binding swap. Doc comment expanded to record the
origin and justification.
std_either_list_demo refactored: mkleft/mkright workaround helpers
removed; the list is now constructed inline by mixing
(term-ctor std_either.Either Left 1) and (... Right 10) directly.
Same expected output (2, 3, 2, 3); the demo doubles as the 15g-aux
regression fixture.
Tests: 94/94, unchanged. The fix expanded what compiles without
changing observable behaviour for any prior fixture.
First stdlib fn that imports three other stdlib modules (std_list,
std_either, std_pair) and returns a compound polymorphic ADT tree
(Pair<List<e>, List<a>>). Stresses monomorphisation across nested
parameterised ADTs.
What shipped:
- examples/std_either_list.{ailx,ail.json}: 3 combinators —
- lefts : forall e a. (List<Either<e, a>>) -> List<e>
- rights : forall e a. (List<Either<e, a>>) -> List<a>
- partition_eithers : forall e a. (List<Either<e, a>>)
-> Pair<List<e>, List<a>>
lefts/rights use depth-2 nested Ctor patterns (Cons (Left l) t)
— exercises 16a's desugar pass at a depth not reached by any
prior fixture.
- examples/std_either_list_demo.{ailx,ail.json}: drives all three
combinators on a five-element List<Either<Int, Int>>; expected
output one per line: 2, 3, 2, 3.
- crates/ail/tests/e2e.rs::std_either_list_demo: e2e count 34 → 35.
- docs/JOURNAL.md: Iter 15g entry.
Compiler bug surfaced (queued as 15g-aux, not fixed):
unify_for_subst in ailang-codegen/src/lib.rs accepts $u wildcards
only on the arg side. Mixing inline (Either Left n) and (Either
Right n) in a list literal lands $u on the param side via the
outer List<a>'s binding and errors. Reduced repro: `length [Left
1, Right 10]`. Demo works around with monomorphic mkleft/mkright
helpers; workaround documented inline. Fix is a one-line symmetric
extension of the early-return.
Tests: 94/94. Stdlib: 5 modules, 27 combinators.
After six feature iters since the last docs sweep, DESIGN.md had
visible drift. Patched in place rather than queueing the next
codegen-heavy iter against a stale spec.
DESIGN.md changes (+72 LOC):
- Decision 6: form (A) marked shipped (Iter 14c, sole projection
since 15e); body kept as audit trail.
- Pipeline: desugar pass added between resolve+hash and typecheck;
invariant noted that CheckedModule.symbols hashes from the
original module, not the desugared one (so ail diff/manifest
preserve on-disk identity).
- CLI: added deps, diff, workspace, builtins (shipped earlier but
never doc'd).
- "What is not (yet) supported": re-anchored from "end of Iter 13"
to "as of Iter 16a"; removed lifted gates (cross-module ADTs,
no-GC, flat-pattern-only); added tighter follow-up gates
(literal sub-patterns, local recursive let).
- "What IS supported": promoted nested Ctor patterns (16a),
cross-module ADTs (14h), form-(A) text surface (14b/14c/15e),
Boehm GC (Decision 9 / 14f) into the smoke-test list.
- Smoke tests: added std_list_demo, std_maybe_demo, std_either_demo,
std_pair_demo, nested_pat fixtures.
JOURNAL: 16a-aux entry recording the drift sites and what was
explicitly *not* changed (Goal, Decisions 1-5, 7-9, Mangling,
Convention, Data model, Verification — spot-checked, all current).
Tests: 93/93 unchanged (doc-only). Build clean.
Fourth stdlib module. Pair<a, b> is the canonical product with two
type vars and a single constructor MkPair. Five combinators: fst,
snd, swap, map_first (Pair<a, b> -> Pair<c, b>), map_second
(Pair<a, b> -> Pair<a, c>).
Smallest dogfood for the parameterised-ADT path so far: no
recursion in the data def or any combinator, single-arm matches
throughout. Demo prints 7, 9, 9, 7, 8, 18 deterministically.
No compiler bug surfaced (fourth stdlib iter in a row to land
clean). The only fixable issue was a paren-balance typo in the
demo's seq chain.
Cumulative: 4 stdlib modules, 24 combinators. Type-system surface
exercised end-to-end now spans 1/2/3-type-var data, 1/2/3-type-var
fns, recursive ADTs, cross-module imports of all of the above,
flat and nested patterns, TCO via monomorphised musttail, GC.
Tests: 93/93 (e2e 33 → 34).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Lifts the gate that rejected `(pat-ctor Cons a (pat-ctor Cons b _))`.
Approach: a pure AST → AST pass `ailang_core::desugar::desugar_module`
that flattens nested-Ctor sub-patterns into chains of single-level
matches with let-bound fresh vars and duplicate fall-through. Both
ailang-check and ailang-codegen call the pass at pipeline entry.
Hash-relevant canonical bytes are untouched: the pass runs after
load_module, in memory only. `check`'s returned CheckedModule.symbols
still carries hashes of the original defs so `ail diff` / `ail manifest`
see on-disk identities.
Lit sub-patterns inside a Ctor still rejected — that's the narrower
scope of `nested-ctor-pattern-not-allowed` post-16a; the variant doc
reflects the new meaning.
Fresh-name safety: `$` is a valid ident character in form (A), so
the Desugarer pre-walks every Term::Var / Pattern::Var name into a
BTreeSet and bumps its counter past any user-spelled `$mp_N`.
Already-flat matches go through `is_flat()` and emit identical AST
shapes; every existing fixture produces the same output as before.
New: examples/nested_pat.{ailx,ail.json} prints 30 from
first_two_sum on [10, 20, 30]. e2e test
`nested_ctor_pattern_first_two_sum` guards the path.
Tests: 92/92 (e2e 32→33, ailang-core unit 10→12).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The CLI help text claimed `render` was symmetric to `parse`, but
`render` was wired to ailang_core::pretty::module (an older
human-pretty form) while `parse` consumed form (A). Two different
"text projections" coexisted under one name.
Fix: Cmd::Render and Cmd::Describe (both branches) now call
ailang_surface::print, the actual inverse of `parse`. Round-trip
gate via `ail render | ail parse` is now an e2e test in
crates/ail/tests/e2e.rs in addition to the existing unit-level
round-trip across all 25 fixtures in ailang-surface/tests.
Cleanup: `ailang_core::pretty::module` and its three private
helpers (`def_block`, `term_block`, `term_inline`) deleted —
~260 LOC of duplicate-purpose code removed. pretty.rs goes
from 457 to 196 LOC. Surviving surface is intentionally narrow:
manifest, type_to_string, pattern_to_string — the diagnostic
stringification used in error messages, where one-line ML
notation reads better than form (A)'s nested S-expressions.
Module-level doc rewritten to nail down the single-purpose
framing.
Tests: 89/89 (e2e +1, ailang-core unit -1 since the deleted
test exercised the deleted fn).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Third stdlib module. Either<e, a> is the first 2-type-var data def,
and the eliminator `either : (e -> c) -> (a -> c) -> Either<e, a> -> c`
the first fn with three type vars on top of the data — the deepest
polymorphism shipped end-to-end so far.
Five combinators: from_right, is_left, is_right, map_right, either.
Demo exercises every one and runs to deterministic output. IR shows
six distinct monomorphisations including two `from_right` variants
(Left=Int vs Left=$u depending on call site) and `either__I_I_I`.
No new compiler bugs surfaced: 14a / 14h / 15b coverage was wide
enough to handle 2-type-var data plus 3-type-var fns out of the box.
Discovered (queued as 15e): `ail render` and `ail parse` are not
symmetric. Form-(A) printer in ailang_surface::print is the actual
inverse of `parse` (round-trip test covers it across all 25 fixtures
including std_either) but is not exposed via the CLI; `render` still
calls the older ailang_core::pretty::module printer.
Tests: 89/89 (was 88, +1 e2e for std_either_demo).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Small empirical iter confirming the 14e tail-call story works
dogfood-practical. New fixture std_list_stress.ailx builds a
1000-element List<Int> via recursive build, folds it with both
fold_left (tail-marked in std_list) and fold_right (constructor-
blocked, unmarked), prints both sums (500500 each).
IR evidence at the monomorphised fold-recursion sites:
fold_left__I_I: musttail call i64 @ail_std_list_fold_left__I_I(...)
fold_right__I_I: plain call i64 @ail_std_list_fold_right__I_I(...)
The tail: true marker on std_list.fold_left's recursive call
survives monomorphisation through the __I_I specialisation.
fold_right correctly emits a plain call (recursive call is
second arg to f, not tail position).
Empirical findings at N=1000:
- fold_left runs in constant stack (musttail).
- fold_right runs in ~1000 frames. No segfault; default 8MB
Linux stack absorbs it comfortably.
- build (recursive, unmarked) likewise fits.
- End-to-end ~40ms wall (build + clang link); program <1ms.
- Boehm GC handles 2 × 1000 Cons allocations without symptom.
Tests 87 -> 88. Cumulative 30 e2e tests. cargo doc 0 warnings.
Cumulative state, post-15c: 2 stdlib modules (std_maybe,
std_list), 14 combinators, cross-module recursive ADTs working,
TCO surviving monomorphisation, GC at 1000-element scale. Four
compiler bugs surfaced + fixed in dogfood since 14a.
Natural pause point. Queue for future iters: 15d (std_either),
15e (std_pair), 16a (nested patterns), 16b (local rec let),
17a (per-fn arena, Decision 9 future-iter). None block further
stdlib work.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Second stdlib module. Tester wrote std_list.ailx (10 combinators,
164 LOC) and a consumer demo. std_list typechecked standalone;
demo did not, surfacing three compiler bugs:
1. Check-side: Iter 14h's qualify_local_types was applied to
Term::Var cross-module lookup but not to ctor-field types in
Term::Ctor synth or Pattern::Ctor resolution. First recursive
cross-module ADT (List has Cons a (List a) — recursive Con
self-ref) triggers the bug. std_maybe slipped through because
Maybe's ctors have no recursive Con field.
2. Codegen-side: same gap mirrored across 4 sites in codegen
(Term::Ctor synth, lower_ctor, lower_match) plus a tweak to
unify_for_subst (recurse on re-bind instead of strict equality
so sibling-derived List<Int> accepts nullary-ctor's List<$u>
wildcard).
3. Const codegen: emit_const rejected non-literal const bodies.
The demo's xs : List<Int> = Cons 1 (...) requires it. Fix:
per-module const table, Term::Var resolution loads literal
consts from global, inlines non-literal bodies. Bare and
qualified refs both supported.
All three fixes carry an "Iter 15b" code comment at their site.
~349/25 LOC across ailang-check, ailang-codegen, e2e.rs.
Tests 85 -> 87. New e2e std_list_demo asserts 11-line stdout:
length 5, is_empty false/true, head via from_maybe, tail length,
append length, reverse head, map double head, filter is_even
length, fold_left sum, fold_right sum. New ailang-check unit
test cross_module_recursive_adt_term_and_pat_ctor covers both
the original bug and the symmetric pat-ctor latent twin.
Hash invariance: all pre-15b fixtures + std_maybe defs
bit-identical. 14a / 14e / 14h regressions all green.
Cumulative state: 2 stdlib modules (std_maybe, std_list), 14
combinators, cross-module recursive ADT working end-to-end.
Three compiler bugs surfaced + fixed in dogfood since 14a (each
dogfood iter has surfaced ≥1).
Authoring observation: form (A) at 10 combinators is fine; main
friction is paren-counting in nested seq chains, not the form
itself. n-ary seq would help but is sugar.
Plan 15c: 1000-element list stress test for fold_left (tail-call-
marked) vs fold_right (constructor-blocked).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The 15a tester surfaced a real compiler limitation: cross-module
type and ctor references were not implemented. Iter 5b only
carried fns + consts via module_globals; types/ctors stayed
module-local with an explicit DESIGN comment. This iter completes
the cross-module mechanism using the Iter-5b convention:
qualified-only access via module.Name.
Implementation:
- ailang-check: Env.module_types populated by build_module_types.
Qualified resolution in Type::Con, Term::Ctor, with cross-module
fallback for pat-ctor (local wins, multi-import collision -> new
ambiguous-ctor diagnostic). Four new unit tests.
- ailang-codegen: workspace-level module_ctor_index replaces
per-Emitter table. lookup_ctor_by_type / lookup_ctor_in_pattern
thread qualified type names through box-tag and field-type
resolution.
- examples/std_maybe_demo.{ailx,ail.json}: type-name slots now
qualified (std_maybe.Maybe).
- New e2e test cross_module_maybe_demo asserts the demo prints
["7","99","true","true","42"].
Net diff ~550 LOC. Tests 80 -> 85. All Iter 14a regressions
(parameterised_box_round_trip, parameterised_maybe_match,
list_map_poly_inc_then_prints, polymorphic_id_at_int_and_bool)
verified green — the 14h derive_substitution change (default
unpinned forall vars to Unit for monomorphiser) sits on a
different layer than 14a's $u-wildcard fix and they coexist.
Hash invariance: all five std_maybe def hashes unchanged. All
80-test-suite fixtures retain bit-identical hashes — cross-module
support is purely additive at the language level.
Process note: the std_maybe.ailx file landed in the 14g commit
via a sloppy git-add-A; should have spotted it before staging.
Not a correctness issue but a hygiene one.
Implementer flagged Unit-default monomorphisation as wasteful-
but-correct; rethink if stdlib grows toward overload-resolution-
style cases needing distinct unconstrained instantiations.
std_maybe stdlib effectively ships: module + four combinators +
e2e-tested consumer demo. Plan 15b: std_list importing std_maybe,
exercising Maybe-returning head/tail and tail-call-marked
fold_left.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Reconsidered 14d's removal of Term::If. The decision was wrong.
"No redundancies" requires judgment; reducibility (if -> match)
is not redundancy in the strong sense. Term::If is a primitive
control-flow shape; bool branching is the second most common
shape after sequencing, and removing it cost 3x tokens on every
branch site (`(if c a b)` 4 tokens vs the match-on-Bool form
12 tokens).
Meta-pattern fixed: I had been treating user observations as
directives. User said "if is a subset of match"; I jumped to
remove it citing CLAUDE.md, with no independent conviction.
The leak appeared in 14f's JOURNAL prose ("three lines for what
if used to do in one"), which read as regret. Two feedback
memories saved (memory/feedback_user_suggestions_not_directives,
memory/feedback_no_nostalgia_for_removed_features) to head this
off.
Implementation: mechanical reverse-application of 14d's diff at
every site (AST, check including the 14e tail-position arm,
codegen 4 sites, surface parser/printer, pretty, CLI walker,
e2e test mutation). Removed lower_bool_match helper — it existed
only because 14d's migration shape needed codegen for non-ptr
match scrutinees; with Term::If back, match-on-Bool returns to
its pre-14d unsupported state. Three fixtures (sum, sort, max3)
restored to pre-14d shape. gc_stress (added in 14f) also
migrated back to (if ...) since it was authored under the wrong
constraint.
14e (musttail) and 14f (GC_malloc) verified intact in IR.
Hashes restored to pre-14d values:
- sum.sum: db33f57cb329935e
- sort.insert: 697fcb9f30f8633a
- max3.max: 65c45d6a45dd0a72
- max3.max3: 624b14429bf302f5
All other defs across all 18 fixtures keep their post-14f
hashes. Tests 80/80 green; cargo doc 0 warnings. LOC delta
+265/-295 net -30.
DESIGN.md Decision 7 preserved with a "Status: REVERTED" header
for audit trail. Form-(A) `if-term` production restored.
Plan: back to 15a (std_maybe stdlib module).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Decision 9 ships. Through Iter 14e every ADT box, lambda env, and
closure pair was leaked. This iter substitutes GC_malloc for malloc
in all four IR allocation sites and links -lgc. No language change,
no AST change, no schema change.
Diff: 5 files modified, ~30 LOC net.
- codegen/lib.rs: 4 substitutions @malloc -> @GC_malloc.
- ail/main.rs: .arg("-lgc") in the clang invocation.
- 5 IR snapshot files: mechanical s/@malloc/@GC_malloc/, 9
occurrences. IR is bit-identical to pre-14f modulo this
substitution — exactly Decision 9's promise.
- e2e.rs: new test gc_handles_recursive_list_construction.
- examples/gc_stress.{ailx,ail.json}: new fixture, builds a 50-
element list via recursive Cons, sums it (1275).
Hash invariance verified: every existing fixture def hash
unchanged (codegen and link line are downstream of canonical
bytes; AST didn't move).
Tests 79 -> 80, all green. Existing 79 byte-identical stdout.
gc_stress -> 1275. list_map_poly -> 2/3/4 unchanged. sort
sorted-list unchanged. cargo doc 0 warnings.
GC notes (pertinent to future work):
- GC_INIT() not needed on Arch libgc 1.5.6 (auto-init via
__attribute__((constructor))).
- No conservative-scan over-retention observed.
- -lgc alone sufficient for link (pthread/dl transitive).
Pattern-shape note from gc_stress fixture writing: the post-14d
"if-then-else" replacement is `(match (app == n 0) (case
(pat-lit true) ...) (case (pat-wild) ...))`. Three lines for
what `if` used to do in one, but uniform with the language.
Worth flagging for the stdlib brief.
Language is feature-complete enough for stdlib. The three
blockers identified at the 14b boundary (redundancy 14d, tail
calls 14e, GC 14f) are all done. Plan 15a: first stdlib module
std_list.ailx with length/append/reverse/map/filter/fold_left/
fold_right/head/tail/is_empty.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Decision 8 ships. Term::App and Term::Do gain tail: bool with
serde-default false and skip-when-false serialisation. New
typecheck pass verify_tail_positions enforces tail-position rules
(Scheme-style propagation through match arms, seq.rhs, let body,
lam body). Codegen emits musttail call for marked App calls.
Hash invariance verified: only the two migrated print_list defs
(list_map_poly.print_list, sort.print_list) changed hashes; all
other defs across all 18 fixtures kept bit-identical hashes —
confirms the skip-when-false serialisation rule works.
Tests 76 -> 79: tail_call_in_non_tail_position_is_rejected,
tail_call_in_tail_position_is_accepted, plus an IR-grep e2e test
asserting that print_list's recursive call site emits musttail
in the lowered IR. Existing 25 e2e tests unchanged in behaviour
(map -> [2,3,4], sort -> sorted list).
IR evidence at the recursive site:
%v7 = musttail call i8 @ail_list_map_poly_print_list(ptr %v6)
ret i8 %v7
Two deviations called out in the implementer report and JOURNAL:
1. tail-do uses tail call, not musttail. Cross-type return
(runtime helpers return i32, AILang Unit is i8) would have
LLVM reject musttail. Path is implemented but not exercised
by any current fixture; proper fix is runtime-helper signature
change, punted.
2. block_terminated flag in codegen so tail-call emit
(musttail call + ret) doesn't get a duplicate trailing ret
from surrounding code (match-arm phi, fn-body, lambda thunk).
Internal plumbing; required for IR well-formedness.
Form (A) productions now at ~30, exactly the constraint-1
budget. Future surface additions need to retire something or
explicit-budget-rebalance in DESIGN.md.
GC notes from implementer survey land in JOURNAL:
- Allocations cluster in lower_ctor; every term-ctor does
malloc(8+8n).
- Tail recursion does not reduce alloc pressure, only stack.
For map-style ctor-blocked recursions, allocation IS the
bottleneck.
- Per-fn arena is sound only when fn return type contains no
boxed ADT. Most current fixtures violate this.
Plan 14f: Boehm conservative GC (GC_malloc, -lgc) as a first
cut. Single-iter integration, no AST/schema change. Stress
test: build a 100k Cons list, observe RSS doesn't blow up.
After 14f the language is feature-complete enough for stdlib
work (15a).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Term::If was semantically a subset of Term::Match on Bool. Per
CLAUDE.md the language must contain no redundancies; two AST nodes
for the same operation produces an authoring decision with no
semantic content and a duplicate codegen path. Removed.
Migration shape (applied to sum, sort, max3 fixtures):
(if c a b) -> (match c (case (lit-bool true) a) (case _ b))
No schema version bump (per user direction): no third-party consumes
ailang/v0, so version ceremony is pure overhead. Edited AST and
fixtures in place; pinned hashes in hash.rs updated.
Implementer deviation, called out and justified: a tightly-scoped
lower_bool_match helper (~95 LOC) was needed in codegen because
the existing match path rejects i1 scrutinees and Pattern::Lit.
Helper accepts only the canonical two-arm migration shape, errors
on anything else, emits the same br/phi IR Term::If used to. No
generalisation of the ADT-match codegen.
Diff: 13 files, +286/-221 (net +65 LOC). AST got smaller
(one variant gone), form-(A) got smaller (one production gone),
typecheck got smaller (one branch gone). Codegen got slightly
larger by the bool-match helper.
Hash deltas: sum.sum, sort.insert, max3.max, max3.max3 changed.
All other defs (e.g. sum.main, sort.IntList, sort.sort,
sort.print_list, max3.main) kept bit-identical hashes — confirms
canonical-JSON byte format intact.
Verification: 76/76 tests green; sum->55, max3->17, sort->[1,1,2,
3,3,4,5,5,5,6,9] (identical to pre-migration). cargo doc 0 warnings.
Tail-call survey by implementer (informs 14e): print_list
recursions are already in tail position (rhs of seq inside match
arm); map/sort/insert recursions are NOT (constructor-blocked
inside Cons applications). 14e annotation will benefit terminal
recursions; ctor-blocked ones need accumulator-form rewrites in
source, not a compiler-side transform.
Decision 7 added to DESIGN.md. JOURNAL entry has the language-
completion sequence (14d done, 14e tail-calls, 14f GC, 15a stdlib).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Brummel