Integers, Integers, Integers

Hello!! Been a while :)

Lately I have been working on v1.6. I call it the “Usefullness” update — rhymes with Grug — because it adds a ton of long awaited features and various convenience implementations Flower DESPERATELY needs.

For example, currently the progress has to do with v1.6.1, or Fixed-Width Integers. When it comes to systems programming and in-general efficiency, having various integer sizes is important as it provides an additional layer of manual control over memory and sizes.

I know I would have to add them eventualy, so why not put them at the start of the Usefulness update?? I’m sure they’ll come in handy later on.

What Actually Changed?

Well, for starters, there’s now fixed-width integers (yay)! They’re built in types, so you declare them as you would with any other atom / primitive:

type Byte = u8
type Choice = Byte | u16

type OptionalByte = ?Byte

struct Packet {
    pair: Byte[2],
    size: Choice,
    owner: OptionalByte
}

A whole bunch of commits and integer-specific changes regarding indices, arity, unions, nullables, etc etc etc have been made, and they all won’t fit here so instead, take a look at the current branch!

What’s In Store?

Plenty more features, you can assure yourself! There’s maybe 6 or 7 — I swear — or so commits left for this specific addition, and after that a lot more features laid out in the roadmap for 1.6!

As always, thanks for sticking around and watching the fiasco that is this project become more and more estranged with every hour. Love y’all!!

Ivy <3