跳到主要内容

Introduction to Wave v0.0.9-pre-beta: Explicit Mutability, Smarter Functions, and Safer Pointers

· 阅读需 3 分钟
LunaStev
LunaStev
Programming Language Engineer

Hello! I'm Lunastev, the developer of Wave.

We are very excited to introduce Wave 'v0.0.9-Free Beta' — A version that offers Explicit Mutability, Smarter Functions, and Safer Pointers.

Wave is designed with low-level features in mind, and in this version, We are making a big leap in that direction.

📐 Language Specification Updates​

🧠 Introduction of let, let mut, and var for Explicit Mutability​

  • Wave now supports three types of variable declarations to express mutability explicitly:

    • var: fully mutable, intended for general-purpose variables

    • let: immutable, reassignment is forbidden

    • let mut: mutable under immutable declaration context (safe controlled mutability)

  • This design introduces clearer ownership intent and improves safety in low-level and system-oriented programming.

🧠 Default Parameter Values in Function Declarations​

  • Wave functions can now define parameters with default values:

    fun main(name: str = "World") {
        println("Hello {}", name);
    }

  • If an argument is not provided at runtime, the default value will be inserted automatically by the compiler.

  • This enables more expressive and flexible function declarations.

✅ Added Features​

🧠 Parser and IR support for explicit mutability​

  • Introduced internal Mutability enum: Var, Let, LetMut

  • Implemented parse_let() with optional mut keyword for parsing

  • Wave's IR generation now restricts let variables from being reassigned

🧠 IR handling of function parameter defaults​

  • When default values are present in function parameters, they are now correctly recognized and handled during LLVM IR generation

  • If an argument is not passed at runtime, the default value is inserted directly into the stack-allocated variable

🔧 Bug Fixes​

🐛 Incorrect string output in println() format​

  • Fixed an issue where str values (i8*) were printed as raw addresses

  • The format translation now maps i8* to %s correctly

  • Values are passed directly to printf as string pointers, avoiding ptr_to_int conversion

🐛 Incorrect handling of deref assignment​

  • Fixed an issue where dereferencing a pointer and assigning its value caused type mismatches in the generated IR.

  • The IR now properly handles dereferencing a pointer (deref p1 = deref p2;) and assigning the values correctly without causing i32** mismatches.

✨ Other Changes​

🧠 IR-level enforcement of immutability​

  • Reassignment attempts to let variables now cause a compile-time panic

  • All memory operations (store/load) respect mutability constraints

🧠 IR-level enforcement of pointer dereferencing​

  • Introduced a fix to ensure that pointer dereferencing (deref p1 = deref p2;) is handled correctly in the IR.

  • Adjusted the generate_address_ir() function to properly dereference pointers and load/store values without causing pointer type mismatches.

Showcase​

Image1description

Image3description

Image2description

Image4description

Thank you for using Wave! Stay tuned for future updates and enhancements.

Installation Guide​

For Linux:​

  1. Download and Extract:

    • Download the wave-v0.0.9-pre-beta-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz file from the official source.
    • Use the wget command: 
      wget https://github.com/LunaStev/Wave/releases/download/v0.0.9-pre-beta/wave-v0.0.9-pre-beta-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
    • Extract the archive: 
      sudo tar -xvzf wave-v0.0.9-pre-beta-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin

  2. Setting up LLVMs

    • Open a terminal and type: 
      sudo apt-get update
      sudo apt-get install llvm-14 llvm-14-dev clang-14 libclang-14-dev lld-14 clang
      sudo ln -s /usr/lib/llvm-14/lib/libLLVM-14.so /usr/lib/libllvm-14.so
      export LLVM_SYS_140_PREFIX=/usr/lib/llvm-14
      source ~/.bashrc

  3. Verify Installation:

    • Open a terminal and type: 
      wavec --version
    • If the version number displays, the installation was successful.

Contributor​

@LunaStev | 🇰🇷

Website​

Website GitHub Ko-fi