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Run

Compiler Status

Run is in active development. The compiler can compile and run simple programs through C code generation.

Pipeline Status

Section titled “Pipeline Status”
Component Status
Lexer Complete
Parser Complete
Naming conventions Complete
Name resolution Complete
Type checking In progress
IR lowering Complete
C code generation Complete
Runtime library MVP
Standard library Not started

Compiler Architecture

Section titled “Compiler Architecture”

The compiler is written in Zig 0.16 and follows a traditional pipeline:

Source (.run) → Lexer → Token stream → Parser → AST → Name Resolution → Type Check → IR → C codegen

Source Files

Section titled “Source Files”
File Purpose
main.zig CLI entry point and command dispatch
token.zig Token types (~90 variants), keyword map, display names
lexer.zig Single-pass stateless scanner
parser.zig Recursive descent parser with precedence climbing
ast.zig Flat AST representation (node array + extra_data)
naming.zig Naming convention enforcement
resolve.zig Name resolution and scope analysis
symbol.zig Symbol table types
typecheck.zig Type checking pass
types.zig Type representation
diagnostics.zig Rust-style diagnostic reporting with annotations
lower.zig AST-to-IR lowering
ir.zig Intermediate representation
codegen_c.zig C code generation backend
driver.zig Compilation pipeline orchestration

Diagnostics

Section titled “Diagnostics”

The compiler produces Rust-style error messages with source context, caret annotations, and contextual help. All compilation phases (lexer, parser, naming, name resolution, type checking, ownership, constant folding) use a unified diagnostic system.

Features:

  • Source context — errors show the relevant source line with carets under the error span
  • Labels — concise caret-line labels distinct from the full error message
  • Annotations — chained notes, help, and hint messages after the primary error
  • “Did you mean?” — fuzzy matching suggests corrections for undefined references and struct fields
  • “First defined here” — duplicate definitions and immutable reassignment show the original declaration
  • Fix suggestions — naming violations suggest the corrected name; immutable reassignment suggests var
  • Keyword migration — users from Go (func), JavaScript (function), Python (def), or C++ (const) get targeted help
  • Semicolon detection — stray semicolons produce a clear error explaining Run uses newlines
  • Error count summary — compilation ends with “aborting due to N previous errors”
  • Color support — ANSI colors in terminal output, disabled with --no-color

Example output:

error: cannot assign to immutable variable 'x'
 --> main.run:5:5
  |
5 |     x = 10
  |     ^ cannot assign here
  |
  = note: defined as immutable here
 --> main.run:3:5
  |
3 |     let x = 42
  |     --- defined as immutable here
  |
  = help: consider using 'var' instead of 'let' if you need to reassign
error: aborting due to 1 previous error

Getting Involved

Section titled “Getting Involved”

This is a great time to contribute — the language design is taking shape, and there are significant pieces to build. Check the GitHub Issues for open tasks.