base

This is the repository of base, a metapackage containing the bare minimum to create Clean applications.

It contains:

• base-clm
• base-code-generator
• base-compiler
• base-lib
• base-linker (Windows only)
• base-rts
• base-stdenv

Versioning in base

These are some notes on how base and its subpackages are versioned.

base uses semantic versioning from the Clean programmer’s perspective. This is somewhat tricky for a metapackage:

• A major update indicates backwards incompatible changes. This typically means that code that previously worked may not work any more, i.e., that there is a backwards incompatible change in syntax.
• The patch version is updated when the dependencies must be updated but do not contain user-facing backwards incompatible changes.
• base has dependencies with ^ constraints (the first non-zero version part must remain the same). Concretely this means that if base 1.1.0 depends on base-compiler: ^2.0, the same version of base may use different versions of the compiler, which may have different features (if they were added in different minor versions of base-compiler).
• For this reason, there are no minor updates of base for most new features. If you depend on certain new features, add an extra dependency to your project, e.g. base: ^1.0 and base-compiler: >=2.2. We do not have a real use for minor updates of base itself.
• When a new feature is backwards compatible but significantly restricts the allowed dependencies, a minor update of base can be useful. This was done for 2.1, which added { :} array support. This feature required the latest versions of various base-* packages. Using a minor release allows future changes to be backported onto 2.0.x if needed.

The underlying packages use semantic versioning from the build tool’s perspective. For instance, the base-compiler major version number is updated when ABC code changes in a backwards-incompatible manner (e.g., added or changed instructions, but not removed instructions). The minor version would be updated for new syntax; the patch version for bug fixes and performance improvements.

Example: adding a new ABC instruction

• The code generator needs a minor update to support the new instruction. This is minor because it adds functionality in a backwards-compatible manner; all previously valid ABC code will remain valid.
• The compiler needs a major update to add the instruction. This is major because it changes the (implicit) ABC specification in a backwards-incompatible manner; projects like the ABC interpreter depend on this.
• base itself needs a patch update to allow the new compiler version. This version should also specify the earliest code generator version which can be used with the new compiler. For base, this is just a patch update (and not minor/major), because from the programmer’s perspective nothing has changed.

Maintainer

This project is maintained by Camil Staps.

Changelog

v3.0.0

• Feature: add specifying types for expressions with syntax: (expr :: type), uniqueness attribute equalities or type contexts are not allowed. The specified type may be more general, uniqueness attributes that are required because of propagation are not added by the compiler, so for example [*Int] should be *[*Int].
• Change: only import generic cases/derives that are imported by an explicit import or import of the whole module, instead of importing all generic cases/derives in all (partially) imported definition modules.
• Enhancement: several enhancements/bug fixes due to updating to base-compiler v4.

v2.1.0

• Feature: add support for { :} array types.
• Enhancement: several enhancements due to updating to base-compiler v3.

v2.0

• Change: include base-lib package which has many name conflicts with clean-platform and cannot be used together.

v1.0.1

• Enhancement: reduce memory usage of unboxed arrays of basic types.

v1.0

First tagged version.