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Roadmap

This document outlines the planned development of the Rust-based Kit compiler. The project is currently in the bootstrapping phase, focusing on a minimal but correct compiler pipeline.

The roadmap is organized into phases, not strict deadlines.

Phase 0: Core Compiler Infrastructure (current)

Goal: compile a small but valid subset of Kit to C99 and produce a working binary.

Parsing & Representation

  • Grammar definition closely aligned with the original Haskell AST
  • Stable AST representation in Rust

Code Generation (C backend)

Goal: lower a well-defined subset of Kit ("Kit Core") to portable C99.

Supported language features (Kit Core)

  • Top-level functions
  • Local variables (var)
  • Primitive types:
    • Int
    • Bool
    • CString
  • if expressions / statements
  • while and for loops
  • Function calls
  • return
  • include statements for C headers
  • Interoperability with C functions (e.g. printf)

Explicitly unsupported (for now)

  • Generics
  • Term rewriting
  • defer
  • Pattern matching
  • Implicits

Backend behavior

  • Generate valid, readable C99 source code
  • Invoke the system C compiler to produce a binary
    • Configurable compiler flags and toolchain
  • Remove intermediate C files after successful compilation

Error Handling

  • Replace panics with meaningful compiler errors
  • Add error location information (line and column)
  • Show a source code snippet for errors

Testing

  • Unit testing using examples in examples/

Phase 1: Compiler CLI & Developer Experience

Goal: improve usability and feedback during compilation.

  • Display elapsed compilation time
  • Show compilation progress (progress bar or structured stages)

Phase 2: Standard Library

Goal: provide a minimal but practical standard library.

  • Use the original Kit stdlib as a starting point, with license and authorship disclaimers
  • Provide C interoperability where needed
  • Aim for zero-cost abstractions where possible

Phase 3: Package Manager & Project Workflow

Goal: make Kit projects ergonomic to build and manage.

  • Introduce a Cargo-like workflow for Kit projects
  • Support kit.yaml project manifests
  • Documentation generation (inspired by cargo doc)

More information at https://docs.kitlang.dev/package-management/

Phase 4: Documentation & Project Infrastructure

Goal: support users and contributors beyond the compiler itself.

  • Provide a landing page with examples and documentation (kitlang.dev)
  • Compiler-specific documentation (architecture, internals, design decisions; docs.kitlang.dev)
  • Blog / news section for project updates (optional, future)
  • Set a Kit Style Guide based on stdlib code and Kit repos (optional, future). More information on this at https://docs.kitlang.dev/style-guide/

Completed Work

These features are already implemented:

  • Add linking flags for compatibility with C libraries
  • Replace compiler panics with structured error messages
  • Unit testing via example-based tests
  • Display elapsed compilation time during compilation