2. The language

• 2.1. Program Structure
  • 2.1.1. File Layout
  • 2.1.2. Module Declaration
    • 2.1.2.1. Modifiers
  • 2.1.3. Require Declaration
    • 2.1.3.1. Re-exporting
    • 2.1.3.2. Aliasing
  • 2.1.4. Options Declaration
  • 2.1.5. Top-Level Declarations
  • 2.1.6. Visibility
  • 2.1.7. Entry Points
    • 2.1.7.1. [export]
    • 2.1.7.2. [init]
    • 2.1.7.3. [finalize]
  • 2.1.8. Expect Declaration
  • 2.1.9. Program vs. Module
  • 2.1.10. Execution Lifecycle
  • 2.1.11. Complete Example
• 2.2. Lexical Structure
  • 2.2.1. Identifiers
  • 2.2.2. Keywords
  • 2.2.3. Operators
  • 2.2.4. Other Tokens
  • 2.2.5. Literals
    • 2.2.5.1. Numeric Literals
    • 2.2.5.2. String Literals
  • 2.2.6. Comments
  • 2.2.7. Automatic Semicolons
• 2.3. Values and Data Types
  • 2.3.1. Integer
  • 2.3.2. Float
  • 2.3.3. Bool
  • 2.3.4. String
  • 2.3.5. Type Conversion and Casting
    • 2.3.5.1. Explicit numeric casts
    • 2.3.5.2. Enumeration casts
    • 2.3.5.3. String conversion
    • 2.3.5.4. What is NOT allowed
  • 2.3.6. Table
  • 2.3.7. Array
  • 2.3.8. Struct
  • 2.3.9. Classes
  • 2.3.10. Variant
  • 2.3.11. Tuple
  • 2.3.12. Enumeration
  • 2.3.13. Bitfield
  • 2.3.14. Function
  • 2.3.15. Reference
  • 2.3.16. Pointers
  • 2.3.17. Smart Pointers
    • 2.3.17.1. Ownership transfer functions
  • 2.3.18. Iterators
• 2.4. Pointers
  • 2.4.1. Pointer types
  • 2.4.2. Creating pointers
    • 2.4.2.1. new
    • 2.4.2.2. addr
    • 2.4.2.3. safe_addr
  • 2.4.3. Dereferencing
  • 2.4.4. Null safety
    • 2.4.4.1. Null checks
    • 2.4.4.2. Safe navigation ?.
    • 2.4.4.3. Null coalescing ??
  • 2.4.5. Deletion
  • 2.4.6. Pointer arithmetic
    • 2.4.6.1. Indexing
    • 2.4.6.2. Increment and addition
  • 2.4.7. Void pointers
  • 2.4.8. intptr
  • 2.4.9. reinterpret
  • 2.4.10. Type info
  • 2.4.11. Summary
• 2.5. Constants, Enumerations, Global variables
  • 2.5.1. Constant
  • 2.5.2. Global variable
  • 2.5.3. Enumeration
• 2.6. Statements
  • 2.6.1. Visibility Block
  • 2.6.2. Control Flow Statements
    • 2.6.2.1. if/elif/else
    • 2.6.2.2. static_if / static_elif
    • 2.6.2.3. while
  • 2.6.3. Ranged Loops
    • 2.6.3.1. for
  • 2.6.4. break
  • 2.6.5. continue
  • 2.6.6. return
  • 2.6.7. yield
  • 2.6.8. pass
  • 2.6.9. finally
  • 2.6.10. Local Variable Declarations
  • 2.6.11. assume
  • 2.6.12. with
  • 2.6.13. delete
  • 2.6.14. Function Declaration
  • 2.6.15. try/recover
  • 2.6.16. panic
  • 2.6.17. label and goto
  • 2.6.18. Expression Statement
  • 2.6.19. Global Variables
  • 2.6.20. enum
  • 2.6.21. typedef
• 2.7. Expressions
  • 2.7.1. Assignment
  • 2.7.2. Operators
    • 2.7.2.1. Arithmetic
    • 2.7.2.2. Relational
    • 2.7.2.3. Logical
    • 2.7.2.4. Bitwise Operators
    • 2.7.2.5. Pipe Operators
    • 2.7.2.6. Interval Operator
    • 2.7.2.7. Null-Coalescing Operator (??)
    • 2.7.2.8. Ternary Operator (? :)
    • 2.7.2.9. Null-Safe Navigation (?. and ?[)
    • 2.7.2.10. Type Operators (is, as, ?as)
    • 2.7.2.11. is type<T>
    • 2.7.2.12. Cast, Upcast, and Reinterpret
    • 2.7.2.13. Dereference
    • 2.7.2.14. Address-of
    • 2.7.2.15. Dot Operator Bypass
    • 2.7.2.16. Safe Index (?[)
    • 2.7.2.17. Unsafe Expression
    • 2.7.2.18. Operators Precedence
  • 2.7.3. Array Initializer
  • 2.7.4. Struct, Class, and Handled Type Initializer
  • 2.7.5. Tuple Initializer
  • 2.7.6. Variant Initializer
  • 2.7.7. Table Initializer
  • 2.7.8. default and new
  • 2.7.9. typeinfo
  • 2.7.10. String Interpolation
• 2.8. Function
  • 2.8.1. Function declaration
    • 2.8.1.1. Publicity
    • 2.8.1.2. Function calls
    • 2.8.1.3. Named Arguments Function call
    • 2.8.1.4. Function pointer
    • 2.8.1.5. Nameless functions
    • 2.8.1.6. Generic functions
    • 2.8.1.7. Function overloading
    • 2.8.1.8. Default Parameters
  • 2.8.2. OOP-style calls
  • 2.8.3. Tail Recursion
  • 2.8.4. Operator Overloading
  • 2.8.5. Overloadable operators
  • 2.8.6. Unary operators
  • 2.8.7. Compound assignment operators
  • 2.8.8. Index operators
  • 2.8.9. Clone and finalize operators
  • 2.8.10. is, as, and ?as operators
  • 2.8.11. Null-coalesce operator
  • 2.8.12. Struct method operators
  • 2.8.13. Overloading the ‘.’ and ‘?.’ operators
  • 2.8.14. Overloading accessors
• 2.9. Block
• 2.10. Lambda
  • 2.10.1. Capture
  • 2.10.2. Iterators
  • 2.10.3. Implementation details
• 2.11. Generator
  • 2.11.1. implementation details
• 2.12. Struct
  • 2.12.1. Struct Declaration
  • 2.12.2. Structure Function Members
  • 2.12.3. Inheritance
  • 2.12.4. Alignment
  • 2.12.5. OOP implementation details
• 2.13. Class
  • 2.13.1. Member Visibility
  • 2.13.2. Initializers
  • 2.13.3. Calling Parent Methods
  • 2.13.4. Runtime Type Checking (is)
  • 2.13.5. Type Casting (as, ?as)
  • 2.13.6. Class Templates
  • 2.13.7. Static methods with [class_method]
    • 2.13.7.1. def static — mutable method
    • 2.13.7.2. def static const — const method
    • 2.13.7.3. [explicit_const_class_method]
    • 2.13.7.4. Complete [class_method] example
  • 2.13.8. Stack-Allocated Classes (using)
  • 2.13.9. Complete Example
  • 2.13.10. Implementation details
• 2.14. Tuple
• 2.15. Variant
  • 2.15.1. Alignment and data layout
• 2.16. Bitfield
• 2.17. Type Aliases
  • 2.17.1. typedef Declaration
  • 2.17.2. Publicity
  • 2.17.3. Shorthand Type Alias Syntax
    • 2.17.3.1. Tuple Aliases
    • 2.17.3.2. Variant Aliases
    • 2.17.3.3. Bitfield Aliases
  • 2.17.4. Local Type Aliases
  • 2.17.5. Generic Type Aliases (auto)
  • 2.17.6. Type Aliases with typedecl
• 2.18. Array
• 2.19. Table
• 2.20. Iterator
  • 2.20.1. Making types iterable
  • 2.20.2. builtin iterators
  • 2.20.3. builtin iteration functions
  • 2.20.4. low level builtin iteration functions
  • 2.20.5. next implementation details
• 2.21. Comprehension
• 2.22. String Builder
  • 2.22.1. Basic Usage
  • 2.22.2. Supported Types
  • 2.22.3. Format Specifiers
  • 2.22.4. Escaping Curly Brackets
  • 2.22.5. Multi-line Strings
  • 2.22.6. Implementation Notes
  • 2.22.7. Relationship to print
• 2.23. Modules
  • 2.23.1. Native modules
  • 2.23.2. Builtin modules
  • 2.23.3. Shared modules
  • 2.23.4. Module function visibility
• 2.24. Move, Copy, and Clone
  • 2.24.1. Copy (=)
    • 2.24.1.1. Relaxed assign
  • 2.24.2. Move (<-)
    • 2.24.2.1. When to use move
    • 2.24.2.2. Return by move
  • 2.24.3. Clone (:=)
    • 2.24.3.1. When to use clone
    • 2.24.3.2. Clone initialization
  • 2.24.4. Type Compatibility
  • 2.24.5. Variable Initialization
  • 2.24.6. Struct Initialization
  • 2.24.7. Lambda Captures
  • 2.24.8. Containers
  • 2.24.9. Classes
  • 2.24.10. Custom Clone
  • 2.24.11. Quick Reference
• 2.25. Clone
  • 2.25.1. Cloning rules and implementation details
  • 2.25.2. clone_to_move implementation
• 2.26. Finalizer
  • 2.26.1. Rules and implementation details
• 2.27. Temporary types
• 2.28. Unsafe
  • 2.28.1. implicit
  • 2.28.2. other cases
• 2.29. Generic Programming
  • 2.29.1. typeinfo
  • 2.29.2. auto and auto(named)
  • 2.29.3. type contracts and type operations
  • 2.29.4. options
  • 2.29.5. typedecl
  • 2.29.6. generic tuples and type<> expressions
    • 2.29.6.1. Module prefixes in generics
• 2.30. Pattern matching
  • 2.30.1. Enumeration Matching
  • 2.30.2. Matching Variants
  • 2.30.3. Declaring Variables in Patterns
  • 2.30.4. Matching Structs
  • 2.30.5. Using Guards
  • 2.30.6. Tuple Matching
  • 2.30.7. Matching Static Arrays
  • 2.30.8. Dynamic Array Matching
  • 2.30.9. Match Expressions
  • 2.30.10. Matching with ||
  • 2.30.11. [match_as_is] Structure Annotation
  • 2.30.12. [match_copy] Structure Annotation
  • 2.30.13. Static Matching
  • 2.30.14. match_type
  • 2.30.15. Multi-Match
• 2.31. Annotations
  • 2.31.1. Function Annotations
    • 2.31.1.1. Lifecycle
    • 2.31.1.2. Visibility
    • 2.31.1.3. Safety
    • 2.31.1.4. Lint Control
    • 2.31.1.5. Generics and Contracts
    • 2.31.1.6. Optimization and AOT
    • 2.31.1.7. Macros
    • 2.31.1.8. Markers and Hints
  • 2.31.2. Structure and Class Annotations
  • 2.31.3. Macro Registration Annotations (daslib)
  • 2.31.4. Contract Annotations (daslib)
  • 2.31.5. Annotation Syntax Details
• 2.32. Options
  • 2.32.1. Language and Syntax
  • 2.32.2. Lint Control
  • 2.32.3. Optimization
  • 2.32.4. Memory
  • 2.32.5. AOT
  • 2.32.6. Safety and Strictness
  • 2.32.7. Multiple Contexts
  • 2.32.8. Debugging and Profiling
  • 2.32.9. RTTI
  • 2.32.10. Logging
  • 2.32.11. Print Control
  • 2.32.12. Miscellaneous
  • 2.32.13. Module-Registered Options
• 2.33. Macros
  • 2.33.1. Compilation passes
  • 2.33.2. Invoking macros
  • 2.33.3. AstFunctionAnnotation
  • 2.33.4. AstBlockAnnotation
  • 2.33.5. AstStructureAnnotation
  • 2.33.6. AstEnumerationAnnotation
  • 2.33.7. AstVariantMacro
  • 2.33.8. AstReaderMacro
  • 2.33.9. AstCallMacro
  • 2.33.10. AstPassMacro
  • 2.33.11. AstTypeMacro
  • 2.33.12. AstTypeInfoMacro
  • 2.33.13. AstForLoopMacro
  • 2.33.14. AstCaptureMacro
  • 2.33.15. AstCommentReader
  • 2.33.16. AstSimulateMacro
  • 2.33.17. AstVisitor
• 2.34. Reification
  • 2.34.1. Simple example
  • 2.34.2. Quote macros
    • 2.34.2.1. qmacro
    • 2.34.2.2. qmacro_block
    • 2.34.2.3. qmacro_expr
    • 2.34.2.4. qmacro_type
    • 2.34.2.5. qmacro_function
    • 2.34.2.6. qmacro_variable
  • 2.34.3. Escape sequences
    • 2.34.3.1. $i(ident)
    • 2.34.3.2. $f(field-name)
    • 2.34.3.3. $v(value)
    • 2.34.3.4. $e(expression)
    • 2.34.3.5. $b(array-of-expr)
    • 2.34.3.6. $a(arguments)
    • 2.34.3.7. $t(type)
    • 2.34.3.8. $c(call-name)
• 2.35. Built-in Functions
  • 2.35.1. Invocation
  • 2.35.2. Assertions
  • 2.35.3. Debug
  • 2.35.4. Panic
  • 2.35.5. Memory & Type Utilities
  • 2.35.6. Array Operations
    • 2.35.6.1. Resize & Reserve
    • 2.35.6.2. Push & Emplace
    • 2.35.6.3. Remove & Erase
    • 2.35.6.4. Access & Search
    • 2.35.6.5. Sorting
    • 2.35.6.6. Swap
  • 2.35.7. Table Operations
    • 2.35.7.1. Lookup
    • 2.35.7.2. Insert & Emplace
    • 2.35.7.3. Remove & Clear
    • 2.35.7.4. Iteration
  • 2.35.8. Iterator Operations
  • 2.35.9. Conversion Functions
  • 2.35.10. Clone
  • 2.35.11. Lock Operations
  • 2.35.12. Serialization
  • 2.35.13. Smart Pointer
  • 2.35.14. Memory Mapping
  • 2.35.15. Vector Construction
  • 2.35.16. Move Helpers
  • 2.35.17. Miscellaneous

3. The Runtime

• 3.1. Context
  • 3.1.1. Initialization and shutdown
  • 3.1.2. Macro contexts
  • 3.1.3. Locking
  • 3.1.4. Lookups
  • 3.1.5. Memory allocation and garbage collection
• 3.2. Locks
  • 3.2.1. Context locks
  • 3.2.2. Array and Table locks
  • 3.2.3. Array and Table lock checking
• 3.3. Type Mangling
  • 3.3.1. Primitive types
  • 3.3.2. Qualifiers and modifiers
  • 3.3.3. Pointers
  • 3.3.4. Composite prefixes
  • 3.3.5. Container types
  • 3.3.6. Fixed-size arrays (dim)
  • 3.3.7. Callable types
  • 3.3.8. Structures, handled types, and enumerations
  • 3.3.9. Type aliases
  • 3.3.10. Named arguments
  • 3.3.11. Bitfields
  • 3.3.12. Special / internal types
  • 3.3.13. Remove-qualifiers (generics)
  • 3.3.14. Interop function signatures
    • 3.3.14.1. Examples
  • 3.3.15. Querying mangled names at runtime