0.3.0

Released 2026-03-10. GitHub release | Downloads

Added

• System BIFs: Added createUUID(), createGUID(), and getSystemSetting().
• CLI BIFs: Added cliGetArgs() (structured parsing), cliRead(), cliConfirm(), cliClear(), and cliExit().
• Expanded Array Library: 20+ new BIFs including arraySort, arrayFindNoCase, arrayAvg, arraySum, arrayUnique, etc.
• Expanded Struct Library: 15+ new BIFs including structAppend, structMap, structFilter, structSort, structKeyExists, etc.
• Math BIFs: abs, min, and max.
• rust: Imports: Support for importing native Rust modules and classes using import rust:path.to.Module.
• MatchBox Macros: New matchbox-macros crate for zero-boilerplate Rust-to-BoxLang interop (automatic BIF and Class registration).
• Polymorphic Inline Caches (PIC): Enhanced member access performance with support for multiple shapes per call site.
• Generational Garbage Collection: Improved GC performance with young/old generation separation and optimized allocation strategies.
• String Interning: Added a global string interner for deduplicating identifiers and property names, reducing memory overhead.
• Fiber Scheduling: Implemented timeslice-based quantum management and priority handling for concurrent tasks.
• Logical Operators: ||, &&, and unary ! (with short-circuit evaluation).
• Ternary Operator: condition ? trueValue : falseValue expressions, nestable.
• continue Statement: Skip to the next iteration in both for and for-in loops.
• Sparse Array Assignment: Assigning to an out-of-bounds array index auto-grows the array, filling gaps with null. Reading beyond the end also returns null instead of throwing.
• --output <path> CLI flag: Override the output file path when compiling a script.
• --strip-source CLI flag: Strip embedded source text from compiled .bxb output for smaller binaries (~35% reduction).
• JS Interop (WASM target): JsHandle-based host function bridge (matchbox_js_host) for DOM and JS API access from scripts.

Changed

• Flat u32 Bytecode: Refactored the entire VM to use a high-performance flat u32 opcode encoding.
• Optimized Loop Handling: Added specialized FOR_LOOP_STEP opcodes for faster iteration.
• Generic len(): The len() BIF now natively supports Arrays, Structs, and Strings.

Fixed

• Fixed critical stack management bug in CALL where passing too many arguments caused a subtraction overflow.
• Enabled string comparison support in GREATER and LESS opcodes to allow sorting strings in prelude functions.
• Fixed deserialized function chunks causing an index-out-of-bounds panic in the VM.
• Fixed source text being duplicated into every function/method sub-chunk at compile time.
• continue now works correctly inside for-in loops.