Panackelty alpha.12 release

Updated 2026-10-11: alpha.12 has been released. The downloadable native preview adds chained else if conditions, executable file-based namespaces and opt-in source coverage for Panackelty code. Get alpha.12, read the release notes, or browse the coverage reports.

New workflow

Alpha.12 was developed on the next branch and merged to main once its release checks passed. The release keeps the existing v9 bytecode format. The native toolchain is available for Linux x86-64 and Apple silicon; the browser playground remains separately pinned and does not yet share every native feature.

Longer conditional chains

Panackelty now supports else if chains with multiple conditions and an optional final else:

pure classify(value: Nat): Str {
  if value == 0 {
    "zero"
  } else if value == 1 {
    "one"
  } else if value == 2 {
    "two"
  } else {
    "many"
  }
}

Conditions are evaluated in order. After the first true condition, later conditions are skipped. When a conditional produces a value, the compiler checks that its branches produce compatible types; omitting the final else can leave no value on some path.

Measuring Panackelty source coverage

Alpha.12 adds inventory, collection, aggregation and reporting commands for Panackelty source. The verified baseline covers 43 tracked compiler, bytecode and standard-library source files across an explicit root set. Coverage records what those test runs reached; it does not mean every test ran, every behaviour was exercised or assertions are sufficient. The coverage reports show source revisions and measured scope separately from the native C VM report.

Namespaces

File-based namespaces let a program import a module explicitly, for example project/src/user, and give declarations stable, distinct identities across modules. The release supports project/ and stdlib/ imports, aliases, selected imports, qualified names, public declarations and re-exports. Source execution and saved-v9 bytecode run the selected entry module only. Imports stay within the entry module's tree and active toolchain; packages and remote dependencies are not included. Unsupported or deferred body checks reject instead of emitting an unchecked program.

The compiler is itself written in Panackelty, so namespace support also had to work through source loading, checking, code generation, bytecode and the seeded rebuild process. The staged implementation let the pre-namespace compiler seed build an intermediate compiler before the migrated compiler rebuilt itself.

Beyond LLM capabilities

The implementation required settling how imports identify modules, how the compiler preserves declaration identities, what bytecode must retain and how a compiler seed predating namespaces can bootstrap the change. An LLM can help with bounded implementation and checking tasks, but those decisions and the cross-toolchain acceptance evidence still need an explicit design and review.