styx, a programming languange written in D, is on the bootstrap path

[Basile B.]

On Monday, 18 January 2021 at 18:03:12 UTC, IGotD- wrote:
> On Thursday, 14 January 2021 at 17:51:51 UTC, Basile B. wrote:
>> This is the last[1] occasion to speak about a programming 
>> language initiatly made in D, as the bootstrap phase is very 
>> near.
>>
>> I'd like to thank the D compiler developers, that let me work 
>> on DMD even if I borrow another path.
>>
>> [1] : https://gitlab.com/styx-lang/styx
>
> Interesting project.
>
> A few questions.
>
> I see that you use "var auto name" in order to automatically 
> infer the type. Would it be possible just using "var name" for 
> that, similar to other popular languages.
>
> There is currently no information about memory management, is 
> this something you have an idea how to design right now?

It has a memory management system very comparable to older Delphi 
(<= 2007)  or current FreePascal. So dynamic arrays are reference 
counted and automatically managed when used a local var.

Classes and structures are manually managed but the dtor is 
automatically called when the instance is a local.

This system is proven to work as the compiler itself is now 
rewritten in styx.
(example, the valgrind report after running the compiler with the 
equivalent of D "-unittest" CLI option : 
https://gitlab.com/styx-lang/styx/-/jobs/1980055910#L110.

To be honest I already knew it will work before implementing ref 
counting. This has been used for something like 30 years by 
hundreds and hundreds of programmers.