Roc has different rust crates for various binaries and libraries. Their roles are briefly described below. If you'd like to learn more, have any questions, or suspect something is out of date, please start a discussion on the [Roc Zulip](https://roc.zulipchat.com/)!
You can use `cargo doc` to generate docs for a specific package; e.g.
Code to represent the [Abstract Syntax Tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_syntax_tree) as used by the editor. In contrast to the compiler, the types in this AST do not keep track of the location of the matching code in the source file.
Compiles `.roc` files and combines them with their platform into an executable binary. See [compiler/README.md](./compiler/README.md) for more information.
-`roc_alias_analysis` Performs analysis and optimizations to remove unneeded [reference counts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_counting) at runtime, and supports in-place mutation.
-`arena_pool` An implementation of an [arena allocator](https://mgravell.github.io/Pipelines.Sockets.Unofficial/docs/arenas.html) designed for the compiler's workloads.
-`roc_build` Responsible for coordinating building and linking of a Roc app with its host.
-`roc_builtins` provides the Roc functions and modules that are implicitly imported into every module. See [README.md](./compiler/builtins/README.md) for more information.
-`roc_can` [Canonicalize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonicalization) a roc [abstract syntax tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_syntax_tree), [resolving symbols](https://stackoverflow.com/a/1175493/4200103), [re-ordering definitions](https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/c-high-performance/9781787120952/546b5677-9157-4333-bc90-16db696436ac.xhtml), and preparing a module for [type inference](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_inference).
-`roc_constrain` Responsible for building the set of constraints that are used during [type inference](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_inference) of a program, and for gathering context needed for pleasant error messages when a type error occurs.
-`roc_gen_dev` provides the compiler backend to generate Roc binaries fast, for a nice developer experience. See [README.md](./compiler/gen_dev/README.md) for more information.
-`roc_gen_llvm` provides the LLVM backend to generate Roc binaries. Used to generate a binary with the fastest possible execution speed.
-`roc_load` Used to load a .roc file and coordinate the compiler pipeline, including parsing, type checking, and [code generation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_generation_(compiler)).
-`roc_mono` Roc's main intermediate representation (IR), which is responsible for [monomorphization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomorphization), defunctionalization, inserting [ref-count](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_counting) instructions, and transforming a Roc program into a form that is easy to consume by a backend.
-`roc_parse` Implements the Roc parser, which transforms a textual representation of a Roc program to an [abstract syntax tree](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_syntax_tree).
-`roc_solve` The entry point of Roc's [type inference](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_inference) system. Implements type inference and specialization of abilities.
-`test_gen` contains all of Roc's [code generation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_generation_(compiler)) tests. See [README.md](./compiler/test_gen/README.md) for more information.
The `roc_glue` crate generates code needed for platform hosts to communicate with Roc apps. This tool is not necessary for writing a platform in another language, however, it's a great convenience! Currently supports Rust platforms, and the plan is to support any language via a plugin model.
Surgical linker that links platforms to Roc applications. We created our own linker for performance, since regular linkers add complexity that is not needed for linking Roc apps. Because we want `roc` to manage the build system and final linking of the executable, it is significantly less practical to use a regular linker. See [README.md](./linker/README.md) for more information.
These are files that were originally obtained somewhere else (e.g. crates.io) but which we needed to fork for some Roc-specific reason. See [README.md](./vendor/README.md) for more information.