Version 0.2.4 Release - Runtime Tightening and New File Capabilities

Note: I am trying out different formatting and styling for these release blogs until I land on something I like. So if there are inconsistencies in how these blog posts look, this is why.

Hachi v0.2.4 is a focused release aimed at tightening the runtime and expanding the standard library in ways that make real programs easier to write and more predictable to run. This update fixes long-standing gaps in memory cleanup, improves consistency in the logging module, adds real filestreaming, and introduces a high-performance file search function to the fs module.

The largest internal improvement is a cleanup of the memory management path. Several built-in types were missing destroy handlers, including IntArray and StringArray. Those are now implemented. A few helper functions were leaking temporarily allocated objects, and final program results were not always routed through the destruction logic. In long-running scripts that meant slow heap creep even though the language itself was behaving correctly. All of these issues are resolved, and no language syntax or transpilation rules changed. Your code works the same as before, but with a much more stable memory footprint.

The log module introduces an organized internal convention. This does not add new features, but it creates a consistent structure for log messages and gives the module a real foundation instead of ad-hoc formatting. This will make future improvements easier without breaking user code or adding heavy abstractions.

The fs module gained two upgrades. The first is filestreaming, which lets you open a file and write text incrementally instead of having to prepare a full string in memory. This makes it easier to log, dump large outputs, or build simple pipelines. The second is a new FILE_search function that (under the hood) internally to searches for a byte sequence inside a file. It performs well on large files, and uses direct memory mapping to avoid unnecessary copying. It is currently implemented for Linux (remember that Hachi is a linux-first language. The function simply returns 1 if the string is found and 0 otherwise.

Hachi remains focused on correctness, predictable behavior, and a small but solid runtime. This latest release continues down that path by closing gaps and expanding the standard library in ways that keep the language simple while gradually increasing its capability.

-Mike