1.9.0

[yannham]

Nickel 1.9 includes various bug fixes and quality of life improvements.

Noteworthy additions are:

• let-blocks: declaring several variables at once instead of chaining
  let ... in ...
• explicit import: the ability to specify explicitly the format of an imported
  file (it was based on the file extension implicitly and would default
  to Nickel), e.g. as import "foo.txt" as 'Json or import "bar.ncl" as 'Text.
• the addition of a nickel test command that can extract snippets from the
  in-code documentation (the | doc metadata) together with their expected
  result and run them. The feature is detailed in a new CLI chapter of the user
  manual.

Two important future evolutions have been designed and discussed through RFCs:
package management and a performant bytecode virtual machine. Those features
aren't implemented yet, but the initial designs have been agreed upon.

Breaking changes

• Formatting: the formatting of let bindings has been fixed and improved. To
  avoid a large, irrelevant diff on your next commits, we advise formatting your
  whole codebase first after upgrading to 1.9 in a separate commit.

Core language

• Let blocks by @jneem (#2010,
  #2031,
  #2051)
• Fix unsound record contract deduplication by @yannham in Fix unsound record contract deduplication #2042
• Explicit import format: import "sample.html" as 'Text by @vi
  (#2036,
  #2070)
• Thunks for resolved imports (detect import infinite loops and avoid work duplication) by @jneem in Thunks for resolved imports #2052
• Use a persistent vector to represent arrays instead of an Rc<[..]> by @jneem in [Use a persistent vector instead of an Rc<[..]> #2057](Use a persistent vector instead of an Rc<[..]> #2057

Documentation

• Add a manual chapter for the cli. by @jneem in Add a manual chapter for the cli. #2065
• [RFC006] Package management by @jneem in Package management rfc #1983
• [RFC007] Bytecode interpreter by @yannham in [RFC007] Bytecode interpreter #2045

LSP

• Remove the option for an external formatter in nls by @jneem in Remove the option for an external formatter in nls #2064
• Fix completions in incomplete field name position. by @jneem in Fix completions in incomplete field name position. #2069
• Bound the length of nls completions by @jneem in Bound the length of nls completions #2073

Tooling

• Add --format argument to nickel query command by @suimong in Add --format argument to nickel query command #2015
• Adds a nickel test subcommand for testing examples in docs. by @jneem in Adds a nickel test subcommand for testing examples in docs. #2020
• Detect infinite recursions in nickel doc by @yannham in Detect infinite recursions in nickel doc #2055
• Strict typechecking mode by @jneem in Strict typechecking mode #2077
• Switch to toml-edit for spanned deserialization fixing TOML deserialization bug by @jneem in Switch to toml-edit for spanned deserialization #2074
• Make serde-wasm-bindgen optional in core by @akavel in Make serde-wasm-bindgen optional in core #2089
• Move 'clap' crate dependency behind feature flag in core by @akavel in Move 'clap' crate dependency behind feature flag in core #2090

New Contributors

• @vi made their first contribution in Explicit imports: import 'Raw "sample.html" #2036
• @epompeii made their first contribution in Update Bencher CLI usage #2087
• @akavel made their first contribution in Make serde-wasm-bindgen optional in core #2089

Full Changelog: 1.8.1...1.9.0

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This discussion was created from the release 1.9.0.