8 April 2021
+This post is all about the 0.4.0 release since it’s a big one! +(A separate post for 0.5.0 goals would likely come later.)
+0.4.0 contains 145 commits from 28 contributors.
+The full release notes +link to each PR or commit, and contains a lot more details than this post.
+Goals +As usual, let’s revisit the goals from the 0.3.0 post.
+Most importantly - compound operators didn’t land in 0.4.0 for various reasons. +Still working on it, it’s just a fun and nuanced problem and I don’t want to +keep 0.4.0 back cos of it.
+With that out the way, let’s see what 0.4.0 contains!
+Below we’ll highlight some key features, fixes and improvements from the release.
+A lot of work came from the community, much thanks to everyone contributing!
+You can find all the details and the contributions in the release notes.
+Take note!. There are two minor breaking changes in the API on the release notes.
+Several important bugs have been fixed, sneaky stack corruptions and some user +experience fixes that clarify confusing states.
+A lot of work has gone into documentation this release, revising, fixing, adding +and closing gaps that were left. For example, Wren supports multi-line strings +but this was never mentioned anywhere!
+continue keyword #Loops can now use continue, which is a welcome addition.
+as keyword #You can now use import "..." for Name as OtherName to avoid name conflicts,
+or to use aliases/shorthand for imported variables.
Wren now supports triple quotes for a string """.
This type of string is only unique in how it’s parsed, the content of the +string is ignored (no interpolation or escapes are processed), which allows +complex strings to be expressed without needing to escape things.
+A common example is json or regex, where there’s a lot of escaping that obscures +the string content and makes it hard to read and maintain.
+If they span multiple lines, the string ignores the open and closing newlines +and whitespace and preserves anything in between.
+
+var json = """
+ {
+ "hello": "wren",
+ "from" : "json"
+ }
+"""
+
+
+Attributes are user-defined metadata associated with a class or method that +can be used at runtime, by external tools (and potentially by Wren itself).
+
+#hidden = true
+#doc = "A simple example class"
+class Example {}
+
+
+They can be + - a #key on it’s own + - a #key = value + - a #group(with, multiple = true, keys = “value”)
+Example
+Below you can one obvious use case, a wip version where attributes for docs are +parsed and sent over to vscode to display.
+ + +Runtime access
+By default, attributes are compiled out and ignored.
+For an attribute to be visible at runtime, mark it for runtime access using an
+exclamation:
+#doc = "not runtime data" +#!runtimeAccess = true +#!maxIterations = 16 ++ +
Attributes at runtime are stored on the class itself. You can access them via
+YourClass.attributes. If any attributes are made available, they’ll be found here:
YourClass.attributes.self for the class attributesYourClass.attributes.methods for the method attributesAll the details for Attributes can be found here.
+Mentioned in the last post, you can now use this pattern in code as intended,
+the same-line requirement for the . has been removed.
+ example + .some() + .functions() + .here() ++ +
Lists are now sortable via list.sort() and list.sort {|a, b| ... }.
+You can find an index of something via list.indexOf(value), and remove a value
+via list.remove(value). There’s also list.swap(index0, index1) for moving
+items around within a list.
For the API, wrenSetListElement now exists, and both set and
+wrenGetListElement now accept negative indices same as the language side.
A few new constants:
+Num.tauNum.nan Num.infinityNum.minSafeInteger/Num.maxSafeIntegerAnd some new methods on a number:
+num.min(other)num.max(other)num.clamp(min, max)num.cbrtnum.expnum.log2You can now create and access maps from the API:
+wrenSetSlotNewMapwrenGetMapCountwrenGetMapContainsKeywrenGetMapValuewrenSetMapValuewrenRemoveMapValue