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AILANG Implementation Status

Note: This page shows historical releases. For the absolute latest status:

  • Current version: Check git describe --tags or GitHub releases
  • Test coverage: Run make test-coverage-badge in the repo
  • Features: See CHANGELOG.md

Latest Stable Release​

Check GitHub Releases for the current stable version.

Release History​

v0.5.1 (December 2025)​

API Discovery & DX Improvements:

  • ✅ ailang builtins show <name> - Full documentation for any builtin with fuzzy search
  • ✅ --verbose Flag - Shows signatures and descriptions in builtins list
  • ✅ Public Import Path - Shows import std/rand (rand_int) for internal builtins
  • ✅ Effect Module APIs - v0.5.1 prompt documents all effect module signatures

Go Codegen Improvements:

  • ✅ RecordUpdate Support - { base | field: value } now generates valid Go code
  • ✅ Runtime Helper - RecordUpdate() function added to generated preamble

v0.4.5 (November 2025)​

Inline Testing System (M-TESTING-INLINE):

  • ✅ Inline Test Syntax - tests [(input, expected)] directly in function definitions
  • ✅ ailang test Command - Run inline tests with fast execution (~10-60ms per file)
  • ✅ 98 Tests Migrated - 9 example files with comprehensive test coverage
  • ✅ All Function Types - Recursive, non-recursive, multi-parameter, lists, pattern matching
  • ✅ Main Coexistence - Tests work alongside export func main() functions
  • ⚠️ Limitations - No cross-function dependencies yet (M-TESTING-DEPS milestone)

Implementation:

  • ~1,400 LOC (executor, harness, runner, CLI integration)
  • Full test coverage for all data types (int, float, bool, string, lists, tuples)
  • Supports LetRec and Let bindings, UnaryOp, multi-arg functions
  • Fast execution: 98 tests across 9 files in ~120ms total

Code Organization & AI Maintainability:

  • ✅ Pipeline Refactoring - 2 large files → 10 focused modules (all <800 lines)
  • ✅ AI-Friendly File Sizes - pipeline.go (1014→121 lines, -88%), specialize.go (1384→142 lines, -90%)
  • ✅ Enhanced Documentation - Package-level docs explaining file responsibilities
  • ✅ Test Coverage Maintained - All 2,847+ tests passing after refactoring
  • ✅ Follows AI-First Design - 200-500 line sweet spot for AI context windows

Previous Release: v0.3.12 (October 2025)​

Recovery Release:

  • ✅ show() Builtin Restored - Polymorphic ∀α. α -> string with full type dispatch
  • ✅ 51% Benchmark Recovery - Fixes 64/125 AILANG benchmarks that failed with "undefined variable: show"
  • ✅ 35 Comprehensive Tests - Coverage for primitives, lists, records, ADTs, edge cases
  • ✅ 3.5 hour implementation - On target with estimates (~350 LOC)

Previous Release: v0.3.11 (October 2025)​

Critical Bug Fixes:

  • ✅ Row Unification Fix - Fixed "closed row missing labels: [IO]" errors
  • ✅ Effect Propagation - Corrected function application effect handling
  • ✅ REPL Builtin Environment - Fixed builtin availability in REPL
  • ✅ 3-layer Regression Tests - Added 12-case safety net

v0.3.10 (October 2025)​

Bug Fixes:

  • ✅ Multi-line ADT Parser - Parser now supports multi-line algebraic data type declarations
  • ✅ Operator Lowering - Division operators correctly resolve to type-specific builtins
  • ✅ 10.5% improvement in M-EVAL benchmarks (38.6% → 49.1% success rate)

~1,594 LOC added: Complete module execution infrastructure (Phases 1-4)

M-P4 implements comprehensive effect system infrastructure:

  • ✅ Effect syntax parsing (func f() -> int ! {IO, FS}, \x. body ! {IO})
  • ✅ 8 canonical effects: IO, FS, Net, Clock, Rand, DB, Trace, Async
  • ✅ Effect validation with helpful error messages
  • ✅ Effect elaboration (AST strings → typed effect rows)
  • ✅ Type checking integration (effects thread to TFunc2.EffectRow)
  • ✅ 46 tests passing (17 parser + 29 elaboration)
  • ✅ Deterministic normalization (alphabetically sorted)
  • ✅ Purity sentinel (nil = pure function)

Foundation complete for runtime effect enforcement in v0.2.0. See CHANGELOG.md for details.

Previous Milestones:

  • M-P3: Pattern Matching + ADT Runtime (~600 LOC)
  • M-P2: Type System Hardening (parser coverage 69% → 70.8%)
  • Type System Consolidation (unified TFunc2/TVar2)

Component Status​

✅ Completed Components​

Structured Error Reporting - Milestone A2 (v0.0.7)​

  • ✅ Unified Report Type (internal/errors/report.go) - First-class error type with schema ailang.error/v1
  • ✅ Error Flow Hardening - Errors survive through error chains using errors.As()
  • ✅ Standardized Error Codes - IMP010, IMP011, IMP012, LDR001, MOD006
  • ✅ CLI JSON Output - --json and --compact flags for structured error reporting
  • ✅ Golden File Testing - Byte-for-byte reproducibility of error output
  • ✅ CI Integration - Import tests with golden file validation
  • ~680 lines of implementation + test files + golden files

Module System Foundation (v0.0.6)​

  • ✅ Error Code Taxonomy (internal/errors/codes.go) - Structured error classification with 60+ error codes
  • ✅ Manifest System (internal/manifest/) - Example status tracking and validation
  • ✅ Module Loader (internal/module/loader.go) - Complete dependency resolution with cycle detection
  • ✅ Path Resolver (internal/module/resolver.go) - Cross-platform import path handling
  • ~1,680 lines of production code + comprehensive tests

Lexer (Fully Working)​

  • Complete tokenization with Unicode support
  • All token types: keywords, operators, literals, identifiers
  • String escapes, comments, scientific notation
  • ++ operator for string concatenation
  • ~550 lines, all tests passing

Parser (Nearly Complete - 70.8% coverage)​

  • Recursive descent with Pratt parsing (~1,200 lines)
  • ✅ Working: Basic expressions, let bindings, if-then-else, lists, records
  • ✅ Working: Binary/unary operators with spec-compliant precedence
  • ✅ Working: Lambda expressions with \x. syntax and currying
  • ✅ Working: Record field access with correct precedence
  • ✅ Working: Module declarations and import statements
  • ✅ Working (M-P2): Type declarations - aliases, sum types, record types, nested records
  • ✅ Working (M-P2): Export metadata tracking for type declarations
  • ✅ Working (M-P2): REPL/file parsing parity for all type declarations
  • ⚠️ Parsed but not evaluated: Pattern matching, type annotations
  • ❌ Not working: ? operator, effect handlers, tuple type aliases

Type System (Complete with Type Classes)​

  • Hindley-Milner type inference with let-polymorphism
  • Type class constraints with dictionary-passing
  • Spec-aligned numeric defaulting (neutral vs primary classes)
  • Principal row unification for records and effects
  • Value restriction for sound polymorphism
  • Kind system (Effect, Record, Row kinds)
  • Linear capability capture analysis
  • ~5,000+ lines total

Evaluator & Runtime (Full Module Execution!)​

  • Tree-walking interpreter with module execution runtime
  • ✅ Working: Full module system with imports and exports
  • ✅ Working: Effect system (IO, FS, Clock, Net) with capability security
  • ✅ Working: Pattern matching with exhaustiveness checking
  • ✅ Working: Recursion (self-recursive and mutually-recursive functions)
  • ✅ Working: Block expressions ({ stmt1; stmt2; result })
  • ✅ Working: Records with subsumption and optional row polymorphism
  • ✅ Working: Type classes (Num, Eq, Ord, Show) with dictionary-passing
  • ✅ Working: Auto-import of std/prelude (zero imports for comparisons!)
  • ✅ Working: Record update syntax ({base | field: value})
  • ✅ Working: Anonymous function syntax (func(x: int) -> int { x * 2 })
  • ✅ Working: Numeric conversions (intToFloat, floatToInt)

REPL (Fully Operational)​

  • ✅ Professional Interactive REPL with type class support (~850 lines)
  • ✅ Arrow key history navigation
  • ✅ Persistent history across sessions
  • ✅ Tab completion for REPL commands
  • ✅ Proper :quit command
  • ✅ Full type class resolution with dictionary-passing
  • ✅ Module import system for loading instances
  • ✅ Rich diagnostic commands
  • ✅ Auto-imports std/prelude on startup

AI-First Features (v0.0.4)​

  • ✅ Schema Registry (internal/schema/) - Versioned JSON schemas with forward compatibility
  • ✅ Error JSON Encoder (internal/errors/) - Structured error reporting with taxonomy
  • ✅ Test Reporter (internal/test/) - Machine-readable test results
  • ✅ Effects Inspector (internal/repl/effects.go) - Type/effect introspection
  • ✅ Golden Test Framework (testutil/) - Reproducible test fixtures
  • ~1,500 lines with 100% test coverage

⚠️ Known Issues & Limitations​

What Works (48/66 examples passing - 72.7%)​

  • ✅ Full module execution with effects
  • ✅ Recursion (self-recursive and mutually-recursive)
  • ✅ Block expressions
  • ✅ Records with subsumption
  • ✅ Pattern matching with ADTs
  • ✅ Type classes (Num, Eq, Ord, Show)
  • ✅ Effects: IO, FS, Clock, Net
  • ✅ REPL with full type checking

Current Limitations​

  1. ⚠️ Pattern Guards - Parsed but not evaluated yet
  2. ⚠️ Error Propagation - ? operator not yet implemented
  3. ⚠️ Deep Let Nesting - 4+ levels may fail
  4. ❌ Typed Quasiquotes - Planned for v0.4.0+
  5. ❌ CSP Concurrency - Planned for v0.4.0+
  6. ❌ Session Types - Planned for v1.0+

File Size Issues (Deferred to v0.3.9/v0.4.0)​

6 files exceed the 800-line AI-friendly limit:

  • internal/pipeline/pipeline.go: 848 lines
  • internal/types/inference.go: 853 lines
  • internal/parser/parser_expr.go: 951 lines
  • internal/ast/ast.go: 841 lines
  • internal/eval/eval_typed.go: 879 lines
  • internal/eval/builtins.go: 815 lines

🚧 Planned Features​

Upcoming (v0.4.0+)​

  1. ✅ Module System - COMPLETE in v0.2.0
  2. ✅ Function Declarations - COMPLETE in v0.2.0
  3. ✅ Type Definitions - COMPLETE in v0.2.0
  4. ✅ Effect System - COMPLETE in v0.2.0-v0.3.0
  5. ✅ Standard Library - Core modules (std/io, std/fs, std/prelude) COMPLETE
  6. Pattern Guards - Enhance pattern matching with boolean conditions
  7. Error Propagation - ? operator for Result types
  8. Typed Quasiquotes - Safe metaprogramming with compile-time validation
  9. CSP/Channels - Concurrent programming support
  10. Session Types - Protocol verification

Future (v1.0+)​

  • Training Export: Execution trace collection for AI training
  • Deterministic Time: Virtual clock for reproducible builds
  • AI Debugging Tools: Structured execution traces

Lines of Code Summary​

  • Total Production Code: ~7,860 lines
  • Core Components: ~6,360 lines
  • AI Features: ~1,500 lines
  • Test Coverage: 31.3% overall

Well-Tested Packages​

  • test (95.7%)
  • schema (87.9%)
  • parser (75.8%)
  • errors (75.9%)

Needs Testing​

  • typedast (0%)
  • eval (15.6%)
  • types (20.3%)