YLang 2.2.0 — Stable Release

YLang 2.2.0 expands the developer toolchain with experimental HTTP/API requests, asynchronous HTTP tasks, environment-variable access, and source-aware native debugging. The documented core language and default C-backend workflow remain the compatibility foundation.

Compatibility boundary: the HTTP client, HTTP-task async API, debugger integration, named imports, structs/enums, GUI/Game2D, NASM backend, native Windows path, and YSPM packaging have explicit experimental limitations. This release does not claim Rust-level memory safety, a security sandbox, general-purpose async functions, a built-in JSON parser/serializer, a complete VS Code Debug Adapter Protocol implementation, or Windows interactive debugging.

Highlights

• HTTP and API requests: synchronous helpers and http.request(method, url, body, headers) for GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, and HEAD through optional libcurl support.
• Asynchronous HTTP tasks: http.request_async(...) returns an http_task; await task consumes it and returns the response body; http.cancel(task) requests cancellation. The libcurl multi interface lets multiple transfers progress while tasks are awaited.
• Response and error inspection: http.status(), http.response_headers(), and http.last_error() expose the latest response status, headers, and transport/configuration error.
• Environment access: env.get(name) reads process environment variables without invoking a shell, allowing programs to obtain credentials without hard-coding them.
• Security defaults: request-method and header validation, a 16 KiB header limit, an 8 MiB response-body limit, connect and overall timeouts, HTTPS certificate/hostname verification, and restricted redirect behavior for requests carrying custom headers.
• Source-aware debugger: ylang debug builds with -O0 and debug symbols, then launches GDB on Linux or LLDB on macOS. Generated C source mappings let supported breakpoints refer to original .yl locations.
• Developer tooling: updated VS Code and Neovim syntax support for http and env, a terminal-based VS Code debug command, and repeatable compile/runtime/binary-size benchmark tooling.
• Documentation and website: refreshed homepage, online book, reference pages, and candidate-acceptance tooling.

Known limitations

• Async/await applies only to HTTP task handles. General async functions, a background scheduler, and GUI/event-loop integration are not implemented.
• HTTP response bodies are strings; a built-in JSON parser/serializer is not included.
• Programs that use http.* require libcurl development files and pkg-config when linking. Ordinary programs do not require libcurl.
• HTTP method names are case-sensitive and must be uppercase. HTTP status codes such as 404 are not transport failures; callers must inspect http.status().
• Debugging is an initial CLI workflow, not a complete Debug Adapter Protocol implementation. Local-variable names and some scopes may reflect generated C. Interactive debugging is supported on Linux with GDB and macOS with LLDB; Windows and the NASM backend do not have a source-level debugger contract.
• Experimental extensions are not covered by the stable-core compatibility guarantee and do not provide a security sandbox or complete Rust-like memory safety.

Build and verify

Build from source with GCC or Clang and GNU Make:

make
make test

For HTTP-enabled programs, install libcurl development files and pkg-config. See HTTP and API Requests, the debugger guide, the security model, and the performance guide for requirements and details.

The candidate acceptance procedure is documented in ACCEPTANCE-2.2.0.md. YLang 2.2.0 does not include Marketplace publication of the VS Code extension; the extension can be packaged locally as a .vsix.