Changelog:
---
A lot has been going on, with more than 530 patches and 70 PRs merged since
0.7.0 last summer. In summary:
- Quite a lot of syntax improvements and changes. Checkout the latest
[cheat-sheet](https://catalalang.github.io/catala/syntax.pdf) for an overview
- Allow local `let ... equals ... in ...` definitions
- Better error messages and positions throughout
- Added the ability to directly call a scope and retrieve its outputs, like a
function
- Added disambiguation, allowing to access structure fields without specifying
the structure type each time
- Added automated resolution of operators, allowing e.g. to write just `+` in
place of all the type-specific operators `+.`, `+$`, `+@`, `+^`, etc.
- More consistent priority for operators. It is no longer allowed to write `a
and b or c` without parenthesis.
- Added and changed some operators (`date + duration` now allowed either way,
`int / int` now returns a decimal, added `duration / duration`)
- Added the ability to have variables and functions defined at
top-level (outside of any scope). See annex A of the tutorial for details.
- Added support for functions with multiple arguments
- Some big refactors in the compiler, allowing much better code sharing between
the different passes, and making it much easier to extend. Also added the
possibility to run the type-checker earlier, etc.
- Countless bug-fixes
- Improvements to our proof backend with Z3
- A tool to automatically synchronise with the upstream French law from
Legifrance
This version of OCaml introduces [let-punning](https://v2.ocaml.org/manual/bindingops.html#ss:letops-punning)
It is just syntactic sugar, but OCamlformat makes use of it, without a configuration option, when the OCaml version permits.
This means that the same version of OCamlformat gives different results depending on the underlying OCaml version. Our options, if we want to keep the forced-format policy on the repository, are therefore:
- to disable it whenever binding operators are used (with this PR that's a lot of places, and this becomes too cumbersome, besides defeating the purpose)
- to force devs to use an earlier version of OCaml so that reformatting outputs something compatible
- to bump the minimum OCaml requirement
The latter is the simplest, but it can be reviewed if compatibility is required. Last option would be to report the issue to OCamlformat and hope that they provide a workaround...
Changelog:
* Catala as a proof platform (Z3 backend, safety checks)
* More expressivity for exceptions
* Multiple states for one variable
* Build system relying on ninja-build
* Better debug printers
* Alternative compilation mode without try ... with exceptions