In October 2023, MoonBit underwent Alpha testing. This post aims to introduce recent updates to MoonBit’s language and toolchain, along with applications developed using MoonBit.
Changes in MoonBit Language
1. Added Js_string type, enabling the transfer of strings from MoonBit to the JavaScript host environment.
For example, the following program will print “Hello, Js_string!” to the console.
fn init {
let x = Js_string::new("Hello, ")
let y = Js_string::new("Js_string!")
let z = x + y
z.log()
}
The Moonbit/JS string interoperability relies on FFI and customized JS runtime support. Our online playground will provide a template of the JS runtime with the FFI used by Moonbit, and allow users to customize the JS runtime.
2. Double now supports the to_string method
Double now supports the to_string method, allowing direct printing of floating-point numbers using println.
fn init {
println(3.14)
}
3. Unboxing optimization has been applied to structs with only one immutable field.
For example, in the following code, the struct x, which originally required memory allocation on the heap, is replaced with a single i32 integer through optimization. This avoids the memory allocation of the struct and the overhead of accessing struct fields.
struct X {
val: Int
}
fn init {
let x : X = { val : 42 }
println(x.val)
}
Build System
1. moon build now defaults to outputting the WebAssembly binary format.
moon build now defaults to outputting the WebAssembly binary format and no longer relies on external tools like wat2wasm for conversion. It also provides the --output-wat option for generating the wat format.
2. The MoonBit’s toolchain download for Intel-based Windows is now supported.
The download link is here: MoonBit
