CHANGELOG.md

The Zinc changelog

Version 0.2.3 (2021-02-08)

Compiler

• fixed the dependency contract constructors which were spilled to input.json

Zargo

• fixed the toolset version check during project downloading

Version 0.2.2 (2021-01-26)

Compiler

• fixed incorrect multi-line comment location tracking in some cases

Virtual machine

• fixed the bug where contract instance aggregation caused a stack underflow
• fixed the false-positive type errors in some conditionals
• fixed the incorrect storage address output after manual VM runs

Zargo

• fixed interface descriptions and help messages

Book

• added the Contract::fetch function description
• added the std::collections::MTreeMap initialization example
• fixed some obsolete information

Version 0.2.1 (2020-12-24)

Language

• implemented the Rust-like dependency system
• added the library project type
• allowed to create and use other smart contract instances using the dependency system
• extended the attribute syntax to set the zksync::msg variable in unit tests
• turned the zksync::transfer function into a built-in contract method

Compiler

• fixed the bug with invalid scope for contract fields and methods
• fixed the bug where enum variants were not treated as constants
• fixed the bug where contract storage fields could be addressed without an instance
• fixed the bug where structures and contracts could be initialized with fewer fields than needed
• performed an inventory of compiler errors and created an error reference

Virtual machine

• prevented contract storage and zkSync side effects in false condition branches
• fixed circuit unit tests
• replaced the Exit instruction with Return
• disabled the proof verification tools, as they are temporarily unsupported

Zargo

• initial deposits for contract publishing are not required anymore
• fixed the segmentation fault during HTTP requests on Linux

Book

• added the smart contract troubleshooting chapter
• added the dependency system chapter

Source code

• merged
  • zinc_build and zinc_zksync into zinc_types,
  • zinc_source and zinc_manifest into zinc_project

Version 0.2.0 (2020-10-28)

Language

General

• implemented the module system with access to the root and parent modules
• allowed declaring constants, types, functions, and modules in arbitrary order
• added aliases to the use import statement
• implemented unit-testing functionality
• renamed the assert! function to require

Object-oriented

• added methods with by-value self instance parameter
• added the syntax sugar for calling methods via the dot . operator

Compile-time

• extended constant expressions with arrays, tuples, structures, blocks, conditionals, and matches
• implemented primitive constant functions

Expressions

• fixed the issue where operations on enums could result into an invalid variant
• allowed bitwise operations on non-constant and witness values
• forbidden bitwise operations on signed integers and fields
• implemented the type inference for integer literals in expressions
• added the exponent notation of integer literals
• implemented declaration of multiple variables via tuple destructuring
• removed the mandatory semicolon after block, conditional, and match expressions

Compiler

• fixed the bug where namespace items where resolved from outside the namespace
• fixed the bug where the type of match enumeration variant path pattern used to be unchecked
• fixed the bug where a structure could be initialized without fields
• implemented the per-entry dead code elimination optimization for unreachable functions
• implemented the short-circuiting boolean expressions evaluation
• improved some error messages

Virtual machine

• added the overflow checking and enum validation for input JSON files
• allowed witness array indexes without constraints
• improved some error messages

Zargo

• generalized for managing both circuit and smart contract projects
• improved some commands and default values to decrease redundancy
• added some commands for publishing and working with smart contracts
• taught Zargo to mimic Cargo more accurately

Source code

• added doc comments for the entire project using missing_docs_* lints
• moved some shared data to crates:
  • zinc_logger
  • zinc_const
  • zinc_math
  • zinc_manifest
  • zinc_source
  • zinc_types
  • zinc_types

Overall

• implemented basic smart contracts
• developed the Zandbox application for publishing and running smart contracts

Version 0.1.5 (2020-04-07)

Language

• forbidden the division operator /, but implemented std::ff::invert for field inversion
• allowed casting to types with lesser bitlength (runtime error on overflow)
• added the bitwise operators |, |=, ^, ^=, &, &=, <<, <<=, >>, >>=, ~ (constant expressions only)
• added the binary (e.g. 0b101010) and octal (e.g. 0o52) integer literals
• implemented match exhaustiveness checking without the binding or wildcard pattern
• removed static statements for global variables (use const instead)
• limited match scrutinee expression to boolean and integer only, since it is impossible to destructure complex types for now
• reserved some keywords (see Appendix C of the Zinc book)

Compiler

• fixed the bug with ! while passing a non-builtin function call as a built-in one's argument
• fixed the bug with duplicate match expression branches

Overall

• added a wrapper directory to the release archives to prevent tar- and zip-bombs

Version 0.1.4 (2020-03-05)

Language

• added the Schnorr signature verification to the standard library
• made enumerations strongly typed, not just groups of constants
• match scrutinee can be any expression again (including structure literals)
• implemented automatic loop bounds range type upcasting
• implemented arithmetic assignment operators (+=, -=, *=, /=, %=)
• allowed constant expressions as array sizes (both types and literals)
• field division (i.e. multiplication by inverted value)
• field comparison (treated as unsigned numbers)

Compiler

• implemented advanced errors with Rust-like formatting, hints, location pointers
• added constant overflow checking at compile-time
• the constant expression Euclidean division and remainder now work just like in VM

Virtual machine

• fixed 'unconstrained' variables in hash functions
• fixed constraint generation when the same variable is encountered multiple times in the same expression
• fixed some type errors
• optimized constraint generation for deterministic expressions

Overall

• added the Schnorr signature tool

Version 0.1.3 (2020-02-17)

Compiler

• fixed the compile error with a comment at the end of a file
• added an empty statement to allow optional semicolons

Version 0.1.2 (2020-02-14)

Language

• the structure literal does not require the struct keyword anymore
• dbg!(...) string interpolation, e.g. dbg!("{} + {} = {}", 2, 2, 4);
• assert!(...) now accepts an optional string message as the 2nd argument
• match scrutinee expression now can only be a single identifier (will be fixed soon)
• operators /, %, >=, >, <=, < are temporarily forbidden for the type field

Zargo

• the 'run' command now builds the circuit before running
• added the 'proof-check` command, which executes the sequence 'build + setup + proof + verify'
• circuit data (keys, inputs, outputs) moved from build to data folder

Compiler

• fixed many boundaries of integer types
• fixed the loop range overflow in some edge values of integer types
• fixed the invalid operand order bug in some cases
• fixed conflicting namespaces for functions and types with the same name
• improved some error messages

Virtual machine

• fixed pedersen hash
• fixed unsigned integers division
• fixed the while condition
• fixed the function argument order in some std functions
• made the std::convert::from_bits_signed result two-complement
• pretty error reporting with file, line, and column
• improved some error messages
• removed the redundant 'field' and 'value' keys from the structure type in input JSON templates

Overall

• full integration test coverage
• improved logging

Version 0.1.1 (2020-02-08)

Internal dogfooding/testing release

Version 0.1.0 (2020-01-31)

Initial release