Compilation of suggestions from the Nim v2 thread

suggestions.md

Suggestions for Nim v2

Breaking changes

• Yardanico, exelotl, didlybom: Remove backwards-compatible switches / deprecated features
• markus_gritsch, TiffanyR: newSeq() and newString() ==> initSeq() and initString()
• Zoom: Overhaul stdlib to work with view types and/or options/results for error handling
• xigoi, namisboss: Change object initialization syntax to use = instead of : for consistency
• xigoi: Allow using newlines instead of commas
• xigoi: Make built-in types capitalized
• xigoi: Require std/ for importing standard library modules
• sekao, didlybom, r3c, junelac, SunnyCorleone: Get rid of style insensitivity (discussion)
• ElegantBeef, elcritch: Increase code reuse with concepts, openarrays, and distincts (details)
• elcritch: Default enum scoped names
• gcao: Move JavaScript, WASM, LLVM support to libraries
• kobi, exelotl, didlybom, solomonthewise: Adopt Options module and make types not nil by default
• kobi: Pick an interface library and stick with it so error messages are clear
• exelotl, didlybom, r3c, TiffanyR, j-james: Comprehensive stdlib cleanup
• exelotl: Destructors for files (view types)
• didlybom: Remove less used experimental features
• didlybom: Remove every memory option except orc, arc, none, go
• didlybom: Remove overlapping features
• Sixte: Visibility rules for types
• ingo, stisa: Shrink stdlib (by creating "batteries" libraries?)
• volodymyr: Consistent stdlib module naming (ex: plural vs. singular)
• jblin: Rust/Haxe enums
• TiffanyR: Simpler macro and iterator syntax (?)
• TiffanyR: Replace all usages of / with . (except for division)
• j-james, Derick: Remove %* JSON operator
• j-james, Derick, Sixte: Replace * with pub as the public marker

Potentially breaking changes

• Yardanico, gcao, exelotl, r3c: Internal compiler refactoring (re: nimskull)
• Sixte: Introduction of existential types
• SolitudeSF: Adopt init/new(typedesc)
• sky_khan: Rid compiler of globals and make it an object for being compiled as a dynamic library
• xigoi: Make object syntactic sugar for distinct tuple (?)
• xigoi: Make duck typing for generics opt-in
• sls1005: Update stdlib for sink parameters
• planetis: Overload T() object contruction (instead of init/new or default fields)
• kobi: Continue with flow sensitive typing
• kobi, didlybom: Unify methods and procs
• kobi: Popularize exception effects catching (raises pragma)
• Clonk: Remove style insensitivity in keywords and module names
• r3c, stisa: Separate AST from codegen stage in the compiler
• r3c: Improve stdlib performance
• solomonthewise: Strict funcs by default
• volodymyr: Language support for a HashTable
• volodymyr: Language support for with
• volodymyr: Language support for function piping/chaining
• volodymyr: Support multi-position assignments without tuples
• volodymyr: Extendible eager comprehensions (covered by sugar.collect?)
• volodymyr: Container subsetting (R)
• cumulonimbus: Explicit tail calls
• cumulonimbus: Language features designed for parallelism
• cumulonimbus: Do the least bad form of error handling
• treeform: Default object values
• j-james: range improvements (see: Status style guide)
• cumulonimbus: Get continuation-passing style (CPS) into the core
• hyl: Improve module/function disambiguity with UFCS

Non-breaking changes

• foderking, krakengore, thadeudepaula: Compiler error improvement
• markus_gritsch: Allow tabs for indentation (disallow mixing)
• Zoom, giaco, kobi, treeform: Fix bugs!
• Zoom, exelotl, didlybom, r3c: Complete/polish implementation of view types, user-defined defaults, init hooks, concepts, threading
• Zoom, slangmgh, didlybom, volodymyr, cumulonimbus, treeform: Robust concurrency/multithreading (Go)
• federico3, giaco, junelac, solomonthewise: Include more batteries
• sekao, treeform: Don't break things for the sake of breaking things!
• SFR0815, guzba, giaco, kobi, Clonk, j-james: Mutually recursive module imports
• guzba, slangmgh: Lock in --threads:on and --mm:arc/--mm:orc
• elcritch: Provide a SomeString type
• elcritch: Module actions / triggers on import
• gcao: Robust WASM, LLVM support
• giaco, krakengore, didlybom, jasonfi, r3c, thadeudepaula, solomonthewise: Improve tooling
• giaco: Solve the anti-virus false positives
• giaco, deech, j-james: Official support for auto-generation of C wrappers (adopt Futhark) (manual wrappers still desired)
• detla: "Weak imports" (don't warn unused by default, just ignore)
• detla: Tooling to generate which imports procs came from
• 12398890: More powerful memory profiler
• zevv, j-james: Mutually dependent types (RFC)
• JPLRouge, solomonthewise: Official GUI library
• kobi: Bug fixes around methods
• kobi, krakengore: Stabilize Nim's nice features
• nocturn9x: Allow redeclaring the same field in different object variant cases
• xigoi: Make object variants declare the type for the discriminator (like sum types elsewhere)
• krakengore: Broadly improve includes and imports
• krakengore: Better traces and fixing hints from compiler
• krakengore: Better internal inline compiler documentation
• bather, didlybom, volodymyr: Add sugar to system (particularly -> and =>)
• didlybom, volodymyr, jblin: Official, robust support for pattern matching
• didlybom, solomonthewise: Shorthand for defining sum types
• didlybom, solomonthewise, j-james: Official support for nimpy
• r3c, solomonthewise: Better documentation, best practices, use cases
• thadeudepaula: Explicit roadmap and goals
• thadeudepaula: Tooling should support user style (ex. snake_case vs. camelCase)
• thadeudepaula: Better tooling around overloads
• archnim: Data structure to hold mixed types (that isn't a JSON node)
• solomonthewise: Detailed compiler documentation/specs
• SunnyCorleone: Improve Tables (see Python Dicts)
• SunnyCorleone: GUI debugger
• treeform: Official support for overloadable enum names
• treeform: . and .= handling bugfixes
• treeform: Import/iterator strangeness
• treeform: Windows bugfixes
• j-james: Nested types (issue)