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feat(ssa refactor): Implement first-class references #1849

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merged 13 commits into from
Jul 5, 2023
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@jfecher jfecher commented Jul 3, 2023

Description

Problem*

Resolves #1702 - although I opted for first-class references instead of second-class references. These turned out to be easier/cleaner to add since adding second-class references would require some restrictions in how users are allowed to pass these around which are non-trivial to implement.

Summary*

Implements first-class references:

  • A new type &mut T is now added representing mutable references.
    • Unlike rust, there are no lifetimes on references types in noir.
  • New unary operators have been added:
    • Create a mutable reference via &mut expr
    • Dereference via *expr
  • Dereferencing is also valid in the "lvalue" of an assignment.
    • In other words, the * in *foo = bar; is now allowed on the left hand side of the =.
    • This is required if foo : &mut T.
  • An error is issued if:
    • Users use &mut v where v is an immutable variable or field of one.
    • Users use &mut v[i] where v[i] is an array access. Since arrays are immutable in the ssa refactor, this is somewhat more difficult to add so I opted to leave it as an error for now. Note that this is a user-facing error rather than a panic. The error message suggests storing the array element in another variable as a work around.

Documentation

  • This PR requires documentation updates when merged.

    • I will submit a noir-lang/docs PR.
    • I will request for and support Dev Rel's help in documenting this PR.
      • We should mention noir has mutable references.
      • Users can create mutable references via &mut value where value is either an existing (mutable) variable, or a literal value.
        • If it is an existing mutable variable, the reference will be aliased to the same variable
        • If it is to a literal value, a fresh reference will be created.
        • If it is to an immutable value, an error will be issued.
      • Mutable references have the type &mut T where T is the element type. For example, a mutable reference to a Field will have the type &mut Field.
      • Mutable references can be dereferenced to access their inner value: *my_ref. We can think of the unary * operation as having the type fn(&mut T) -> T.
      • Mutable references can be passed to functions to have functions mutate values visible to the caller.

Additional Context

PR Checklist*

  • I have tested the changes locally.
  • I have formatted the changes with Prettier and/or cargo fmt on default settings.

@jfecher
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jfecher commented Jul 4, 2023

Found and fixed a bug with assignments and the mem2reg pass where we would produce incorrect code when codegening a let mut variable with nested &mut references. Only the &mut was dereferenced, and the outer reference from the let mut would not.

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jfecher commented Jul 5, 2023

This PR is passing again

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jfecher commented Jul 5, 2023

All of the outdated code has been removed

@jfecher jfecher added this pull request to the merge queue Jul 5, 2023
Merged via the queue into master with commit e5773e4 Jul 5, 2023
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@jfecher jfecher deleted the jf/references branch July 5, 2023 14:02
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Add second-class references to Noir
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