Files
AILang/docs/roadmap.md
T
Brummel 246b5c7455 iter 24.3: fn print + E2E + 3 compiler-path repairs; milestone 24 close
Ships fn print : forall a. Show a => (a borrow) -> () !IO in the
prelude with explicit-let body \\x -> let s = show x in do
io/print_str s. Three new E2E fixtures + tests verify the full
path:

- show_print_smoke: 4 primitives smoke (print 42 / true / 'hello' /
  3.14) — compile, run, expected stdout
- show_user_adt: data IntBox + instance prelude.Show IntBox +
  print (MkIntBox 7) — stdout '7'
- show_no_instance: let f : Int -> Int = \\x -> x in do print f —
  fires Show-aware NoInstance with DESIGN.md §Prelude(built-in)
  classes cross-reference

IR-shape pin in print_mono_body_shape.rs asserts post-mono
print__Int.body is structurally Term::Let → App(show__Int) →
Do(io/print_str). Protects the explicit let-binder for the heap-Str
RC discipline per eob.1 Str carve-out.

Three plan-defects-fixed-inline surfaced during user-ADT E2E,
necessary repairs to make the spec's stated user-ADT trajectory
work end-to-end:

(a) mono.rs (2 sites): MonoTarget::FreeFn::type_args were carrying
    bare type-cons references; normalised to canonical
    <owner>.<bare> form via workspace_registry.normalize_type_for_lookup
    so synthesised cross-module bodies' post-mono walks reach the
    registry-keyed instance entries. Symmetric to the existing
    class-method-arm normalisation.

(b) codegen/lib.rs (3 sites: resolve_top_level_fn, lower_app
    cross-module arm, synth_with_extras Var arm): post-mono
    synthesised bodies may carry cross-module references to modules
    their source template didn't import (prelude.print__<UserType>
    references show_user_adt.show__<UserType> even though prelude
    does not import user modules). Fall back to direct
    module_user_fns lookup when prefix not in import_map. Both
    ends were independently typechecked before mono ran; the
    cross-module ref is created by mono not by source.

(c) lib.rs synth FreeFnCall arm: walked Type::Forall.constraints,
    substituted rigid vars with fresh metavars, pushed one
    ResidualConstraint per declared constraint. Without this,
    print f at Int -> Int would silently typecheck and fail with
    a confusing 'unknown variable: show' at codegen rather than
    fire the right typecheck-time NoInstance diagnostic.

NoInstance Float-aware arm in check/lib.rs:770-779 extended with
a parallel class == 'prelude.Show' branch that cross-references
DESIGN.md §Prelude(built-in) classes verbatim. Negative-fixture
test asserts code 'no-instance' + Show substring + Prelude-(built-in)-
classes substring.

DESIGN.md §Prelude(built-in) classes milestone-24 paragraph flips
fn print from 'ships in 24.3' to 'shipped in iter 24.3' with body
shape + pin file reference. §Float semantics gains a Show-Float
NaN-spelling cross-reference paragraph linking show 1.5 / show nan /
show inf to instance Show Float via float_to_str.

Roadmap P1 'Post-22 Prelude — Show + print rewire' flipped to [x]
with closing summary naming all three shipped iters (24.1 / 24.2 /
24.3). New P2 entry 'Retire io/print_int|bool|float effect-ops +
migrate example corpus to print' inserted at top of P2.

Tests: 556 passed (was 552 + 4 new). bench/cross_lang exit 0;
bench/compile_check + bench/check exit 1 on documented noise-class
metrics per the audit-cma lineage envelope (8th consecutive
audit-grade observation, baseline pristine per conservative-call).

Milestone 24 closes structurally with this iter. Standard audit
pipeline next.
2026-05-13 04:07:36 +02:00

15 KiB
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AILang Roadmap

Priority-ordered list of upcoming work — milestones, features, todos, and ideas. The orchestrator maintains this file. The user can request additions; the orchestrator chooses what to remove or reprioritise as work progresses.

Conventions

  • One checkbox per entry. - [ ] is open; - [~] is in progress (work has started — a plan exists, a branch is open, or commits are landing); - [x] is done. A finished entry may stay briefly for context, then is removed (with a one-line mirror in docs/journals/).
  • Each entry is tagged by kind and lives under a priority bucket:
    • [milestone] — big chunk that will get a docs/specs/<milestone>.md.
    • [feature] — smaller addition inside a milestone, no full spec.
    • [todo] — concrete task that can run without a brainstorm (cleanup, doc fix, mechanical refactor, test backfill).
    • [idea] — not yet decision-ready, no commitment.
  • Optional depends on: line names another entry that has to land first.
  • Optional context: line points to the journal entry (per-iter file under docs/journals/ or, for pre-2026-05-11 entries, the archived docs/journal-archive.md) where the rationale lives. The roadmap is intentionally terse; rationale stays in the journals.
  • Priority buckets:
    • P0 — in flight. Spec or plan already exists.
    • P1 — next up. Decision made; not yet started.
    • P2 — medium-term. Decided in principle, scheduled later.
    • P3 — ideas. No commitment; may be cut.

P0 — In flight

(empty — canonical-type-names milestone closed 2026-05-11; Floats closed 2026-05-10 and was removed once it stopped being load-bearing context. Pick the next milestone from P1.)

P1 — Next

  • [milestone] Heap-Str ABI — runtime infrastructure for malloc-backed, refcounted Str values alongside the existing static @.str_* globals. Today the Str path is static-only (DESIGN.md §"Float semantics" notes this explicitly), so any primitive that needs to produce a Str at runtime — int_to_str, float_to_str (currently type-installed but CodegenError::Internal on call), eventual Show.show, future ++ on strings — cannot ship. Scope: pick the representation (likely a {rc_header, len, bytes…} slab consistent with the rest of the RC runtime), teach codegen to accept both static and heap Str at the same ABI slot, wire RC inc/drop/clone/compare/eq on the heap form, and ship int_to_str + float_to_str as the first two callers so the ABI gets exercised end-to-end. Unblocks Show + print rewire below.

    • context: DESIGN.md §"Float semantics" (float_to_str is type- installed, codegen-deferred); spec 2026-05-11-23-eq-ord-prelude §"Show. Defers behind a heap-Str-ABI milestone"; spec 2026-05-10-fieldtest-floats §F4 ("dynamic Str allocation in the runtime"); spec 2026-05-09-22-typeclasses §22b.4b ("Show#Int needs an int_to_str primitive returning heap-allocated Str").
  • [milestone] Post-22 Prelude — Show + print rewire — shipped 2026-05-13 as iters 24.1 (heap-Str runtime + codegen for bool_to_str

    • str_clone, f38bad8), 24.2 (prelude class Show + four primitive instances Int/Bool/Str/Float + 22b TShow/tshow migration), and 24.3 (polymorphic fn print : forall a. Show a => (a borrow) -> () !IO
    • positive 4-prim E2E + user-ADT E2E + Show-aware NoInstance diagnostic + DESIGN.md amendments to §"Prelude (built-in) classes" and §"Float semantics"). The MethodNameCollision workaround that blocked the original spec retired in mq.3 (2026-05-13); spec docs/specs/2026-05-13-24-show-print.md re-derived 24.2 + 24.3 against the post-mq architecture.
    • context: spec docs/specs/2026-05-13-24-show-print.md; per-iter journals 2026-05-12-iter-24.1, 2026-05-13-iter-24.2, 2026-05-13-iter-24.3.

P2 — Medium-term

  • [milestone] Retire io/print_int / io/print_bool / io/print_float effect-ops + migrate example corpus to print. Bulk text substitution do io/print_<T> xdo print x across examples/*.ail.json (~86 fixtures affected). Per-type effect-ops are deleted from crates/ailang-check/src/builtins.rs, crates/ailang-codegen/src/lib.rs::lower_app arms, and the corresponding runtime C glue.

    • context: post-milestone-24 mechanical follow-up; the architecture- shipping milestone (24) and corpus-migration milestone (this) are separate so migration runs against a frozen architecture. Same call milestone 23 made for == / eq.
  • [feature] Operator routing through Eq / Ord==, < etc. resolved via the typeclass instead of the built-in primitive comparators. No commitment; gated on bench re-baselining to make sure the indirection doesn't tank latency.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-09
    • depends on: Post-22 Prelude — Eq/Ord (shipped 23.5)
  • [todo] types / ctor_index overlay shape question — decide whether the env's two parallel ctor maps should collapse into one overlay, or stay split. Surfaced during the env-construction unify audit.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-10 ("Audit close: env-construction unify"); closed by iter ctt.1 — DESIGN.md §"Env construction" anchors the split decision.
  • [todo] CLI human-mode diagnostic surface for WorkspaceLoadError — non-JSON ail check routes ct.1 errors via anyhow/thiserror Display (Error: <message>) instead of going through workspace_error_to_diagnostic, so the bracketed [code] prefix the JSON path carries is missing. Plausibly applies to every CLI subcommand that calls load_workspace(&path)? directly.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-11 ("Iteration ct.1") — surfaced by ct.1.8 tester.
  • [todo] Retire dead KindMismatch arm — validate_classdefs's walk_kind_mismatch path is structurally unreachable through well-formed schema post-ct.1 (the canonical-form validator catches the malformed Type::Con { name: param } shape earlier). The enum variant + walk_kind_mismatch helper stay as dead-but-defensive code; a future tidy can delete both.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-11 ("Iteration ct.1"); closed by iter ctt.3 — variant + helper + dispatch + Display arm all deleted; canonical-form-rejection test stays green asserting BareCrossModuleTypeRef.
  • [todo] Re-key Registry.type_def_module to handle bare-name-collision-across-modules — BTreeMap<String, String> keyed by bare type name silently overwrites when two modules each define type Foo; normalize_type_for_registry would then collapse M.Foo and N.Foo to whichever insert won. Acceptable for current corpus (distinct bare type names across modules), but the proper fix is to key by (owning_module, bare_name) → defining_module.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-11 ("Iteration ct.1") — flagged by ct.1.5a quality reviewer.
  • [feature] 22c — typeclass corpus expansion. User-defined classes beyond the prelude four; multi-parameter classes; superclass chains; richer instance bodies. Deferred from milestone 22.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-09
  • [milestone] Module-qualified class names + type-driven method dispatch — retired the MethodNameCollision workaround; shipped 2026-05-13 as iters mq.1 (canonical-form extension for class-ref fields + workspace-internal qualification), mq.2 (type- driven dispatch mechanism installed: method_to_candidate_classes inverse index, multi-candidate ResidualConstraint, resolve_method_dispatch 5-step rule, AmbiguousMethodResolution + UnknownClass diagnostics), and mq.3 (retirement + multi-class E2E

    • class-method-shadowed-by-fn warning + DESIGN.md sync). Two libraries can now each declare class Eq with their own eq; cross-class method ambiguity is resolved at the call site via type-driven dispatch with <module>.<Class>.<method> as the disambiguation form.
    • context: docs/specs/2026-05-10-canonical-type-names.md "Out of scope: Class names" — the workaround was named there so it stayed visible until this milestone retired it.
  • [todo] Boehm full retirement — remove the transitional Boehm GC path now that RC + uniqueness is the canonical memory story.

    • context: JOURNAL pre-22, "Boehm transitional"
  • [feature] Closure-pair slab / pool — codegen tweak to pool the env+code closure pairs instead of one-shot heap allocs. Bench-gated.

  • [todo] FnDef::synthetic flag — formalise the monomorphiser-emitted FnDefs so downstream passes can tell user-authored from synthesised at a glance. Currently inferred from symbol naming.

  • [todo] 21'h iteration — final 21' carry-over (latency methodology pass). Numbering kept for continuity with the 21' arc.

  • [todo] io/print_float always-emit-.0 — surface printer always emits . or e/E so re-lex routes to Float; the runtime printer (printf("%g\n", v)) doesn't, so 2.0 prints as 2 (Int-shaped). Asymmetric. Either switch the runtime path to a .0-fallback printer (matching surface) or document the %g contract in DESIGN.md §"Float semantics" so the LLM-author knows io/print_float's output is for-humans not round-trip.

    • context: docs/specs/2026-05-10-fieldtest-floats.md finding F1.
  • [todo] Rustdoc warning sweep — cargo doc --no-deps reports 16 pre-existing warnings (15 in ailang-check, 1 in ailang-core: private-item links from public doc, unresolved intra-crate links). All predate the design-md-consolidation milestone; treat as a one-off sweep.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-10 ("Audit close: design-md-consolidation").
  • [todo] design_schema_drift.rs fidelity widening — current test checks anchor presence anywhere in DESIGN.md; the audit found that [high] schema gaps in §"Data model" are invisible because anchors live in Decision 11 instead. Constrain the test to scan only §"Data model" + ParamMode block, or extract JSON-schema blocks into a machine-readable file the test consumes.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-10 ("Audit close").
  • [todo] Split BadCrossModuleTypeRef into two diagnostics — the current single shape collapses unknown-owner and known-owner / unknown-type-in-owner into one message. The two cases suggest different fixes (add (import <owner>) vs. fix the type name). In the known-owner branch, list the owner's available type defs as candidates the way bare-cross-module-type-ref lists candidates from imports.

    • context: fieldtest 2026-05-11 — examples/ct_3*.ail exhibits both branches with identical-shape diagnostics.
  • [todo] Workspace search beyond entry-module's directory — load_workspace only finds sibling .ail.json files in the same directory as the entry module, so any consumer of prelude/std in a subdirectory has no way to resolve cross-module imports. Add either a --workspace-root flag on ail check / ail build / ail run, or upward-search from the entry module's directory. Alternatively ratify the flat-workspace assumption in DESIGN.md if intentional.

    • context: fieldtest 2026-05-11 — fieldtest fixtures could not be placed under examples/fieldtest/ because of this; predates the canonical-type-names milestone but surfaces every time.
  • [todo] check_in_workspace per-module overlay narrowing — crates/ailang-check/src/lib.rs:1234 still clears+rebuilds env.ctor_index per-module; ct.3.2 narrowed the analogous mono overlay to types-only. The typecheck-side overlay's env.ctor_index half serves the duplicate-detection diagnostic at workspace-build time, not the runtime ctor lookup (which is type-driven post-ct.2.2). Narrowing is mechanical but needs a careful read to confirm no other consumer survives.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-11 ("Iteration ct.4") — milestone close follow-up; closed by iter ctt.1 — recon confirmed the rebuild is the load-bearing consumer of in-band DuplicateCtor (pinned by crates/ailang-check/tests/duplicate_ctor_pin.rs); the asymmetry with the mono side is intentional.

P3 — Ideas

  • [todo] compare_primitives_smoke.ail counterpart — the canonical happy-path exhibit for canonical-type-names ships only as JSON. Per Decision 6, Surface is the LLM-author surface; the milestone should have a .ail counterpart. Two paths: author examples/compare_primitives_smoke.ail to round-trip into the existing JSON, OR retire the JSON fixture in favour of examples/ct_1_ordering_signum.{ail,ail.json} as the new canonical happy-path exhibit.

    • context: fieldtest 2026-05-11 (spec_gap).
  • [todo] Codegen lookup_ctor_in_pattern type-anchoring — crates/ailang-codegen/src/lib.rs:1790 still walks every module's ctor_index by bare ctor name. Plumbing the scrutinee's qualified Type::Con through pattern lowering would type-anchor it symmetric to the ct.2.2 typecheck-side fix. Not load-bearing (uniqueness is enforced at typecheck), but cleaner.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-11 ("Iteration ct.3" + ct.4 close).
  • [todo] compare_primitives_smoke IR-shape assertion — observe compare__Int / compare__Bool / compare__Str symbols in the emitted IR. Blocked on emit-ir CLI not running mono; resolution paths include extending the CLI to run mono, using library APIs directly in e2e.rs, or adding --dump-ir to ail build. The E2E stdout assertion already covers correctness; the IR-shape test would catch refactor regressions that rename mono symbols.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-11 ("Iteration ct.4") — dropped from ct.4.4 when the BLOCKED condition surfaced.
  • [idea] Latency methodology rework — switch from per-run timing to a histogram-based approach so tail-latency regressions are visible without re-running. Queued from 21'g.

  • [idea] Parser-test backfill for 22b.4a-era duplicate-clause sites (class × 3, class method × 2, instance × 3, instance method × 1). No regression pin today; only worth it if a 22b.4a-era diagnostic needs to change.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-10 ("Iteration 22-tidy.7")
  • [idea] write_type Type::Forall arm in crates/ailang-prose/src/lib.rs silently drops constraints in inline-type rendering. Dormant — surface forms today only carry forall at fn-signature top level. Fix only if a future feature carries forall + constraints inline.

    • context: JOURNAL 2026-05-10 ("Iteration 22-tidy.6")
  • [idea] Richer integration paths between RC and uniqueness — deferred from the 21' arc; revisit once the uniqueness inference covers more program shapes.