Implemented array types in my toy language's new IR-based Aarch64 compiler! Arrays (fixed-size only) are first-class value types, can be passed to/from functions, copied, etc, and generally behave similarly to structs.
I think that's about it feature-wise of what I wanted to add to the language in this iteration. Probably gonna try implementing something substantial in it later to see if it feels the way I wanted it to (and fix a ton of inevitable bugs in the compiler)
@lisyarus I know nothing about the language except what I see here, but it looks nice.
There is one thing about the code that I dislike though: using *ptr to access ptr[0]. It makes it unclear that ptr points to an array. I would like it to have operator* only work on pointers to values, not on pointers to arrays.
Anyway, I'm just someone on the internet, so feel free to disagree. 😇
@lisyarus Yes, I dislike it in C and C++ as well. 😅 That's why when I see a new language, I think 'here's an opportunity to do better'.
I don't understand why it would be hard, though. Obviously, they are the same in machine language, but that's because it doesn't have types at all. If the compiler knows what arrays are, and it knows 'pointer to X' as a type, it surprises me that 'array of N values of Y' is not a valid value for X.
But I trust you that it's harder than it seems to me. 😊
Nikita Lisitsa
Bas Wijnen