Name Mangling Convention

Warning

The name mangling convention has changed and is slightly more detailed in recent versions of the compiler. Documentation will be changed to reflect this in the near future.

The KSL name mangling convention is designed to prevent any kind of type confusion. That includes the return type.

This also means that you can provide function overloading in KSL modules and external object files. The main reason for the return type being included is so that there can be functions that serve the same purpose but the KSL return type predictor doesn’t get too broken.

The general rules for name mangling in KSL are as follows:

1. Periods in identifiers are translated to two underscores.
2. Space between the function name and types are four underscores.
3. The rest of the name will have all parameter types and the return type all separated by one underscore.

You’ll also see that the type keyword int turns into i64. This is because, as explained in variables, int and float are just aliases for i64 and f64 respectively. Reasoning for this choice are explained there.

Functions

fn main(i64 a, i64 b) -> i64 {}
//  ^    ^      ^         ^
//  |    |      |         |
//  |    |      |         +---- Return Type
//  |    |      +-------------- Parameter Type
//  |    +--------------------- Parameter Type
//  +-------------------------- Function Name

<namespace>__<function_name>____<parameter_types>_<return_type>

Where:

• namespace is the current namespace of the function
• function_name is the name of the function
• parameter_types are the type identifiers of all parameters concatenated with a _
• return_type is the function return type

So:

fn main(i64 a, i64 b) -> i64  // Becomes: __main____i64_i64_i64

namespace api;
fn add(f64 a, f64 b) -> f64   // Becomes: api__add____f64_f64_f64
fn getFloat() -> f64          // Becomes: api__getFloat_____f64

namespace ipa;
fn not(bool val) -> bool      // Becomes: ipa__not____bool_bool
fn testing() -> void          // Becomes: ipa__testing_____null

Methods

Warning

As of writing, the official conventions for methods have not been finalized.

    i64[] a = [10, 20];
    a.push(30);
//  ^  ^   ^
//  |  |   |
//  |  |   +----------- Parameter
//  |  +--------------- Method Name
//  +------------------ Variable Name

t<variable_type>_method_<method_name>____<parameter_types>

Where:

• variable_type is the type (int, float, arr) of the variable being operated on
• method_name is the name of the method
• parameter_types are the type identifiers of all parameters concatenated with a _

Since methods do not have a return type and are expected to always mutate a variable directly, there is no need for there to be a return type in the mangled name.

So:

str a = "Hello, ";
a.join("World!");   // Becomes: tstr_method_join____str

i64[] b = [10, 20];
b.push(30);         // Becomes: tarr_method_push____i64

Variables

Warning

As of writing, the official conventions for variables have not been decided.