Determa v0.3 Spruce

Determa v0.3 - Spruce

• Major Language Upgrade: Functions, Calls, Locals & Recursion

• This release represents one of the most significant milestones in the evolution of Determa — transforming the language from a simple expression evaluator into a fully structured, function-oriented programming language.

🌟 What’s New in v0.3

• First-Class Functions

Determa now supports user-defined functions with:

• Named functions

• Parameters & arguments

• Multiple statements in a function body

• Return values

• Type-annotated return types

Example:

func add(a, b): int {
    return a + b;
}

print add(4, 5); // 9

Function Calls + Call Stack Frames

A full call stack architecture has been implemented:

• Each function call uses its own CallFrame

• Arguments & locals are isolated per frame

• Correct handling of nested and chained calls

Example:

func twice(x) { return x * 2; }
func quad(x) { return twice(twice(x)); }

print quad(5); // 20

Recursion Support

• Determa now correctly handles recursive functions, including deep recursion.

Example:

func fib(n): int {
    if n == 0 return 0;
    elif n == 1 return 1;
    return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2);
}

print fib(10); // 55

Local Variables + Lexical Scoping

Full support for:

• Local variable declarations inside blocks

• Proper lifetime & cleanup

• Shadowing of globals by inner-scope locals

Example:

var x = "global";

{
    var x = "local";
    print x; // local
}

print x; // global

Typechecker Expansion

The typechecker now validates:

• Function parameter counts

• Type consistency in return statements

• Undefined variables inside functions

• Mismatched or missing returns

• This dramatically reduces runtime errors.

VM Improvements

The Determa VM now includes:

• Correct function call handling

• Stack frame isolation

• Stable return value semantics

• Clean REPL execution resets

• Better error reports with stack traces

• Stability improvements eliminate silent crashes & ensure deterministic execution.

New Automated Test Suite

• A brand-new testing architecture was introduced:

• VM tests rewritten to support function-based execution

• Locals & shadowing testcases

• Recursion tests

• Function argument tests

• End-to-end parser → typechecker → compiler → VM pipeline tests

Determa now ships with over 200 automated assertions across multiple subsystems.

Tooling & Developer Experience

• Improved REPL consistency

• Cleaner debug/log output

• Faster compilation pipeline

• New test_functions module for validating advanced language features

Installation

Download the archive for your platform below — no compiler or external dependencies required:

Windows: determa-windows-x64.zip

Linux: determa-linux-x64.tar.gz

macOS: determa-macos-x64.tar.gz

Just extract and run:

./determa file.det

Full Changelog

Compare all changes from v0.2.x:

v0.2.1-Cedar → v0.3

Contribute

Determa is a passion project of mine and hence its fully open source - contributions are welcome!

Try the language, report issues, submit ideas, and help shape the next release.

👉 Pull Requests: Always welcome!

Thank you for reading (👻)!

Determa v0.2.1-Cedar Release

Determa v0.2.1 Cedar

Added CLI and TUI Changes

Changelog

• Added new colours for CLI operations
• Added new repl helper options + colours for the repl
• TUI arg changes (-h, -d, and -v)

Releases:

Download the archive for your operating system below. No external dependencies (like GCC) are required to run the language.

• Windows: determa-windows-x64.zip

• Linux: determa-linux-x64.tar.gz

• macOS: determa-macos-x64.tar.gz

Full Changelog: v0.2-Cedar...v0.2.1-Cedar

Determa v0.2-Cedar

Determa v0.2 'Cedar' Release

This is a major milestone release for the Determa programming language. v0.2 'Cedar' introduces a fully functional, Turing-complete execution environment, upgrading the project from a parser prototype to a usable programming language.

✨ Key Features

• Virtual Machine: Custom high-performance stack-based VM with a specific Bytecode ISA.

• Garbage Collection: Implemented a Mark-and-Sweep Garbage Collector for automatic memory management and leak-free string manipulation.

• Type Safety: Semantic analysis pass ensures type consistency and variable scope validity before execution.

• Control Flow: Full support for logic and branching:

• if, elif, else blocks.

• while loops.

• Boolean logic (true, false, !, ==, <, >).

• Strings: Dynamic string allocation and concatenation support.

• Assignment: Variable reassignment and compound operators (+=, -=, *=, /=, %=).

🛠️ Tooling

• Interactive REPL: A persistent Read-Eval-Print Loop for live coding.

• File Execution: Run .det scripts directly from the command line.

• Cross-Platform: Automated builds for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

📦 Installation

• Download the archive for your operating system below. No external dependencies (like GCC) are required to run the language.

• Windows: determa-windows-x64.zip

• Linux: determa-linux-x64.tar.gz

• macOS: determa-macos-x64.tar.gz