[Announce] Idris 2 - 0.2.1 release for the JVM

[mmhell...@gmail.com]

Hello all,

I am happy to announce the intial version for Idris 2 - 0.2.1 on the JVM. This is compiled from Idris 2 JVM bootstrap version.

Changes:

• Compile initial Idris 2 compiler (0.2.1) with Idris 2 JVM bootstrap version targeting Java 8 bytecode
• Add JVM backend
• Support primtives such as system, IO, network, clock, buffer etc. for JVM backend
• Eliminate tail recursion
• Add debug information such as variable name, file name and line number in bytecode from Idris source
• Compile Idris modules to Java classes at the bytecode level, Idris top level functions to static Java methods and Idris lambdas into Java lambdas with "invokedynamic" implementing Java `Function` interface.
• Generate bytecode concurrently for modules
• Generate classes with `toString` and property getters for Idris constructors
• Infer types to avoid boxing and casting
• Compile Idris list into a Java list
• JVM foreign descriptors supporting static, instance, interface methods and constructor calls

To try it out:

• Unzip idris2-jvm-0.2.1-SNAPSHOT-20210720.zip from here https://github.com/mmhelloworld/Idris2/releases/tag/v0.2.1-SNAPSHOT-20210720 
• Add "bin" directory to PATH variable
• Copy ".idris2" directory containing Idris 0.2.1 packages into your home directory.

To compile and run:

Main.idr:

module Main

%foreign "jvm:showInputDialog(java/lang/Object String),javax/swing/JOptionPane"
showInputDialog : String -> PrimIO String

main : IO ()
main = do
  name <- primIO $ showInputDialog "Name:"
  putStrLn $ "Hello " ++ name

$ idris2 Main.idr -o main

$ java -jar build/exec/main_app/main.jar

Hello Idris