Source loading and modules

Before func can be a keyword, it is four bytes from a file. The source stage validates UTF-8, gives the file an identity, and records enough position information to point back to a bad character later.

Preparing one source file

1. Bound the inputReject oversized or binary-looking input before later stages allocate structures proportional to it.
2. Validate encodingAccept valid UTF-8, ignore a leading UTF-8 BOM, and reject NUL or unsupported encodings.
3. Normalize line endingsSupported CRLF becomes LF; a stray carriage return produces a source diagnostic.
4. Register the fileOwn its bytes, assign a source identity, and build line indexes used by every later diagnostic and trace.

The result combines text, source identity, and a coordinate system. Later stages keep compact byte spans; the source registry converts a span into path, line, and column when it builds a diagnostic or trace.

Loading the module graph

A module is loaded once. Imports declare dependencies, while execution begins from the selected entry function. That model allows module graph cycles. Semantic analysis later diagnoses cycles that imply an infinite value layout or recursive constant.

The host supplies files; the compiler supplies meaning

The compiler asks a compile.Loader for source by logical module request. The command-line app answers from a filesystem and manifest, a test can answer from memory, and an editor can answer from its current buffer.

Positions survive every transformation

Tokens carry source spans. AST nodes combine them. HIR records the span of the checked operation. MIR origins freeze source, line, and column onto emitted instructions. Debug artifacts retain those origins for traps; release artifacts may strip line detail while keeping function names.

Decisions kept here