Welcome to Ecstasy!

This is the public repository for the Ecstasy language (xtclang.org) and the Ecstasy virtual machine (XVM) project.

🚀 Quick Start

Want to try Ecstasy right now? Here's the fastest way:

Option 1: Homebrew (macOS/Linux) - Recommended

# Install Homebrew if you don't have it: https://brew.sh/
brew tap xtclang/xvm && brew install xdk-latest

# Create your first Ecstasy program
echo 'module HelloWorld { void run() { @Inject Console console; console.print("Hello, World!"); } }' > HelloWorld.x

# Compile and run it
xcc HelloWorld.x
xec HelloWorld

Option 2: Docker - Works everywhere

# Create your first program
echo 'module HelloWorld { void run() { @Inject Console console; console.print("Hello, World!"); } }' > HelloWorld.x

# Compile and run using Docker
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace ghcr.io/xtclang/xvm:latest xcc /workspace/HelloWorld.x
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace ghcr.io/xtclang/xvm:latest xec /workspace/HelloWorld

Option 3: Build from source

git clone https://github.com/xtclang/xvm.git
cd xvm
./gradlew xdk:installDist
export PATH=$PWD/xdk/build/install/xdk/bin:$PATH

# Now you can use xcc and xec commands

Next Steps:

• 📖 Learn Ecstasy Language Basics
• 🛠️ XDK Development Kit Guide (below)
• 🐳 Docker Development Guide
• ⚙️ GitHub Actions & CI Documentation

---

📚 Documentation Navigation

This repository contains comprehensive documentation organized hierarchically:

Core Documentation

• Main README (this file) - Platform overview, quickstart, and XDK installation
• Contributing Guide - How to contribute to the Ecstasy project
• Code of Conduct - Community guidelines and expectations

Development Documentation

• Docker Guide - Container development, build instructions, and CI integration
• GitHub Actions - CI/CD pipeline, workflows, and automation documentation
• Testing Guide - Manual testing procedures and test suite documentation

Language Documentation

• Ecstasy Language Wiki - Language specification, tutorials, and examples
• XTC Language Website - Official language website and resources
• Core Documentation - Language specification files, BNF grammar, and VM instruction set

---

What is Ecstasy?

Ecstasy is an application programming language, designed to enable modular development and long-term sustainability of secure, "serverless cloud" applications. Ecstasy leverages a reactive, event-driven, service- and fiber-based execution model within a container-based architecture to achieve energy-efficient, high-density, autonomically-managed deployments. In a nut-shell, Ecstasy is designed to be secure, easy to deploy, easy to monitor, easy to manage, and easy to evolve.

The Ecstasy project includes: a development kit (the Ecstasy development kit, the "xdk") that is produced from this git repo; a programming language specification; a core set of runtime modules (libraries); a portable, type-safe, and verifiable Intermediate Representation (IR); a proof-of-concept interpreted runtime; a JIT compiler targeting the JVM (in development); and a tool-chain with both Java and Ecstasy implementations being actively developed.

The Ecstasy language supports first class modules, including versioning and conditionality; first class functions, including currying and partial application; type-safe object orientation, including support for auto-narrowing types, type-safe covariance, mixins, and duck-typed interfaces; type inference; first class deeply-immutable types; first class asynchronous services, including both automatic async/await-style and promises-based (@Future) programming models; and first class software containers, including resource injection and transitively-closed, immutable type systems. And much, much more.

Read more at: https://github.com/xtclang/xvm/wiki

Find out more about how you can contribute to Ecstasy.

And please respect our code of conduct and each other.

Installation Options

Package Managers (Recommended for Development)

Homebrew (macOS/Linux) - CI Snapshots:

Homebrew provides continuously updated xdk-latest builds from our CI pipeline:

# Install Homebrew if you have not already done so: https://brew.sh/
brew tap xtclang/xvm && brew install xdk-latest
# Upgrade to latest CI build:
brew update && brew upgrade xdk-latest

Note: Homebrew delivers CI snapshots for development. Each snapshot gets a unique timestamp-based version (e.g., 0.4.4-SNAPSHOT.20250831181403) ensuring brew update && brew upgrade xdk-latest detects newer builds correctly. Stable releases will be available through other package managers.

How Snapshot Releases Work

Our CI system maintains a single, continuously updated snapshot release:

• Release Name: XDK Latest Snapshot
• GitHub Tag: xdk-latest-snapshot
• Download URL: https://github.com/xtclang/xvm/releases/download/xdk-latest-snapshot/xdk-0.4.4-SNAPSHOT.zip

Automatic Overwrite Process:

1. Every push to master triggers the CI pipeline
2. The existing xdk-latest-snapshot release is completely deleted
3. A new release with the same tag is created with the latest build
4. The Homebrew formula gets dynamic versioning: 0.4.4-SNAPSHOT.{commitSHA}

This ensures:

• ✅ Only one snapshot release exists (never accumulates old releases)
• ✅ Download URL remains consistent for automation
• ✅ brew update works correctly due to commit-qualified versioning
• ✅ Always reflects the latest master commit

Snapshots vs. Stable Releases

Current Status: The XDK is currently in active development using snapshot versioning (e.g., 0.4.4-SNAPSHOT).

Snapshots in Maven Ecosystem:

• Snapshots (*-SNAPSHOT) are development builds that can change frequently
• Maven/Gradle automatically checks for newer snapshot versions during builds
• Intended for active development, testing, and CI/CD pipelines
• Not suitable for production use due to changing behavior

Stable Releases (coming soon):

• Fixed versions (e.g., 0.5.0, 1.0.0) are immutable once published
• Provide stability guarantees and semantic versioning
• Cached permanently by build systems - no automatic updates
• Suitable for production applications

Next Release Timeline: We will publish the next non-snapshot version of the XDK as soon as all build infrastructure updates are complete. This will mark the transition from active development snapshots to stable, production-ready releases with proper semantic versioning.

GitHub Workflows and Automation

Our project uses comprehensive GitHub workflows for continuous integration, dependency management, and automated releases.

For complete documentation of our CI/CD pipeline, GitHub Actions, custom actions, manual workflow controls, Dependabot configuration, and all automation details, see:

📖 .github/GITHUB_WORKFLOWS.md - XVM GitHub Workflows and Actions

This includes:

• CI/CD Pipeline: Multi-platform builds, testing, Docker images, and publishing
• Dependabot: Automated dependency updates for Gradle, GitHub Actions, and Docker
• Manual Controls: Workflow dispatch options and monitoring commands
• Custom Actions: Reusable automation components
• Future Improvements: Planned enhancements and simplifications

Quick CI Overview:

1. Build & Test: Multi-platform builds (Ubuntu + Windows) with comprehensive testing
2. Snapshot Release: Automated GitHub releases with XDK distribution packages
3. Homebrew Integration: Automatic updates to xtclang/homebrew-xvm tap
4. Docker Images: Multi-architecture container builds published to ghcr.io/xtclang/xvm

Homebrew Configuration:

• Target Branch: Controlled by HOMEBREW_TAP_BRANCH repository variable (currently: lagergren/brew-tap)
• Auto-generated Formula: Version, SHA256, and dependencies computed automatically from build

Last updated: 2025-08-25

Windows:

• Visit http://xtclang.org/xdk-latest.html for Windows installer

Docker Container

Use the official XDK Docker image for development or CI:

# Run XDK commands in container
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace ghcr.io/xtclang/xvm:latest xcc /workspace/MyModule.x
docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace ghcr.io/xtclang/xvm:latest xec /workspace/MyModule

# Interactive development shell  
docker run -it --rm -v $(pwd):/workspace ghcr.io/xtclang/xvm:latest bash

Multi-platform Support: The XDK Docker image supports both linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 architectures, running natively on macOS (Intel/Apple Silicon), Windows (via WSL2), and Linux systems.

Development Container Support: This project includes a devcontainer configuration at .devcontainer/devcontainer.json for VSCode development.

📖 For complete Docker documentation, build instructions, CI integration, and advanced usage, see: docker/README.md

Maven Artifacts and IDE Integration

For Most Developers: Use the XTC Gradle plugin in your IDE instead of command-line tools:

// In your build.gradle.kts
plugins {
    id("org.xtclang.xtc") version "0.4.4-SNAPSHOT"
}

Maven Repository Access:

repositories {
    // For snapshots and releases (current)
    maven {
        url = uri("https://maven.pkg.github.com/xtclang/xvm")
        credentials {
            username = System.getenv("GITHUB_USERNAME")
            password = System.getenv("GITHUB_TOKEN") // needs read:packages scope
        }
    }
    // For local development builds
    mavenLocal()
    // Maven Central (coming soon - will eliminate need for GitHub credentials)
    mavenCentral()
}

Future Repository Access: We plan to publish Maven artifacts to Maven Central (Sonatype OSSRH), which will eliminate the need for GitHub user/token configuration. This will make XDK artifacts available through standard Maven Central without authentication.

Gradle Plugin Portal: The XTC language plugin is published to the Gradle Plugin Portal and we're moving toward continuous publication of plugin updates. This means you can use the plugin without any special repository configuration:

// No special repositories needed - fetched from Gradle Plugin Portal
plugins {
    id("org.xtclang.xtc") version "0.4.4-SNAPSHOT"
}

The plugin handles all XDK dependencies automatically - most XTC developers won't need the command-line tools.

Manual local build for any computer (for advanced users):

• Bootstrap JVM: Any Java 17+ to run the Gradle wrapper (just to bootstrap the build)
• Target JDK: Gradle toolchain automatically provisions the correct JDK version for building XTC
• Gradle: Not required to be pre-installed (project includes Gradle Wrapper)

The build system uses Gradle's toolchain support to automatically download and configure the exact JDK version needed for compilation, so you only need a basic Java installation to get started.

• Use git to obtain the XDK:

  git clone https://github.com/xtclang/xvm.git

• cd into the git repo (the directory will contain these files) and execute the Gradle build:

  ./gradlew build

Note: The Gradle build system uses a toolchain to automatically download and configure the correct Java version if it's not already installed. No manual Java installation is typically required.

Gradle Build Tasks and XDK Setup

The XVM project uses Gradle for building and distribution management. Understanding the different build tasks and installation options is essential for development and deployment.

Core Build Tasks

• ./gradlew build - Executes the complete build lifecycle including compilation, testing, and packaging. This creates all XDK components but doesn't install them locally.

• ./gradlew xdk:installDist - Installs the complete XDK distribution to xdk/build/install/xdk/ with cross-platform shell script launchers (xec, xcc) ready to use immediately. This is the recommended installation method for development.

Distribution Tasks

The project provides two main distribution variants:

Installation Tasks (creates local installations):

1. ./gradlew xdk:installDist - Recommended default installation with cross-platform shell script launchers

   • Output: xdk/build/install/xdk/
   • Contents: Cross-platform script launchers (xec, xcc, xec.bat, xcc.bat)
   • Ready to use: Just add bin/ to your PATH - no configuration needed

2. ./gradlew xdk:installWithNativeLaunchersDist - Platform-specific native binary launchers

   • Output: xdk/build/install/xdk-native-{os}_{arch}/ (e.g., xdk-native-linux_amd64/)
   • Contents: Platform-specific native binary launchers (xec, xcc)
   • Ready to use: Just add bin/ to your PATH - no configuration needed

Archive Tasks (creates distributable archives):

1. ./gradlew xdk:distZip / ./gradlew xdk:distTar - Recommended default archives with cross-platform script launchers

   • Output: xdk-{version}.zip / xdk-{version}.tar.gz
   • Contents: Cross-platform script launchers (xec, xcc, xec.bat, xcc.bat)
   • Ready to use: Extract and add bin/ to PATH

2. ./gradlew xdk:withNativeLaunchersDistZip / ./gradlew xdk:withNativeLaunchersDistTar - Platform-specific native binary launchers

   • Output: xdk-{version}-native-{os}_{arch}.zip / xdk-{version}-native-{os}_{arch}.tar.gz
   • Contents: Platform-specific native launchers (xec, xcc)
   • Ready to use: Extract and add bin/ to PATH

Distribution Differences

Default Distribution (installDist, distZip, distTar):

• ✅ Cross-platform shell script launchers (xec, xcc, xec.bat, xcc.bat)
• ✅ Ready to use immediately - just add bin/ to your PATH
• ✅ Recommended for all users

Native Launcher Distribution (withNativeLaunchers*):

• ✅ Platform-specific native binary launchers (xec, xcc)
• ✅ Ready to use immediately - just add bin/ to your PATH
• ℹ️ Alternative for specific platform requirements

The archive tasks produce the same XDK installation content as their corresponding installation tasks, but package them as ZIP and tar.gz files in the xdk/build/distributions/ directory. These archives are suitable for distribution and deployment to other systems.

Example archive filenames (for version 0.4.4-SNAPSHOT):

• xdk-0.4.4-SNAPSHOT.zip - Default: Cross-platform script launchers
• xdk-0.4.4-SNAPSHOT-native-macos_arm64.zip - macOS ARM64 native launchers

Quick Development Setup

For developers who want a working XDK installation on their local machine:

1. Build and install:

   ./gradlew xdk:installDist

2. Add the XDK bin directory to your PATH:

   # Default installation with script launchers (recommended):
   export PATH="/path/to/xvm/xdk/build/install/xdk/bin:$PATH"
   
   # Alternative: Platform-specific binary launchers (adjust {os}_{arch} as needed):
   export PATH="/path/to/xvm/xdk/build/install/xdk-native-linux_amd64/bin:$PATH"

3. Set XDK_HOME environment variable:

   # Default installation (recommended):
   export XDK_HOME="/path/to/xvm/xdk/build/install/xdk"
   
   # Alternative: Platform-specific binary launchers (adjust {os}_{arch} as needed):
   export XDK_HOME="/path/to/xvm/xdk/build/install/xdk-native-linux_amd64"

Tip for Local Development: You can create a symlink from your home directory to simplify path management:

# Recommended for development:
ln -sf "/path/to/xvm/xdk/build/install/xdk" ~/xdk-latest
export PATH="~/xdk-latest/bin:$PATH"
export XDK_HOME="~/xdk-latest"

This approach shouldn't be controversial since production installations are handled by package managers anyway.

Important: The default installDist task creates a complete, self-contained XDK installation with proper classpath configuration and ready-to-use launchers. There's no need to run platform-specific configuration scripts like cfg_macos.sh - these are legacy approaches that have been superseded by the current Gradle-based distribution system.

Environment Configuration

Once you have an XDK installation (via any of the install tasks), configure your environment:

• XDK_HOME: Set this to the root of your XDK installation directory (e.g., xdk/build/install/xdk)
• PATH: Add $XDK_HOME/bin to your PATH to access xec and xcc launchers

When XDK_HOME is properly set and the launchers are in your PATH, any xec (Ecstasy runner) or xcc (Ecstasy compiler) command will automatically use the correct XDK libraries and classpath.

Understanding the Build Artifacts

After running any install task, you'll find:

• lib/ - Core Ecstasy modules (ecstasy.xtc, collections.xtc, etc.)
• javatools/ - Java-based toolchain (javatools.jar, bridge modules)
• bin/ - Executable launchers (if using launcher variants)
  • xec - Ecstasy code runner
  • xcc - Ecstasy compiler

The difference between build and installDist is that build creates all the necessary artifacts but leaves them in their individual project build directories, while installDist assembles everything into a unified, deployable XDK structure ready for use.

Development

XTC Plugin and Build System Testing

For comprehensive examples of using the XTC Gradle plugin and testing XTC applications, see the manualTests project documentation. This project demonstrates:

• XTC Gradle plugin configuration and usage
• Build lifecycle best practices and caching
• Configuration cache compatibility
• Custom task creation and testing scenarios
• Debugging and troubleshooting XTC builds

The manualTests project serves as both integration tests and comprehensive documentation for the XTC build system.

Git Workflow: Rebase-Only, Linear History

Core Principle: We maintain a strict linear history in master. NEVER merge from master to branches - always rebase instead to avoid merge commits and keep history clean.

Note: All commands below are supported by IDE Git integrations (IntelliJ, VSCode, etc.). This section uses command-line examples for clarity, but the same operations work in any modern IDE.

Initial Git Configuration

Required: Configure git to use rebase by default to prevent accidental merge commits:

# Check current setting
git config --get pull.rebase

# Set globally (recommended)
git config --global pull.rebase true

# Or set for this repository only
git config --local pull.rebase true

The output of the first command should be true. If not, run one of the configuration commands above.

Branch-Based Development Workflow

Rule 1: Always work in feature branches. Direct commits to master are prohibited. Rule 2: Always rebase your branch on top of latest master. Never merge master into your branch.

1. Create and Setup Your Feature Branch

# Create new branch from latest master
git checkout master
git pull                                    # This will rebase thanks to pull.rebase=true
git checkout -b feature/descriptive-name   # Use descriptive names

# Push and set upstream tracking
git push --set-upstream origin feature/descriptive-name

2. Work on Your Changes

# Make changes and commit frequently
git add .
git commit -m "Add feature X functionality"

# Push your work regularly  
git push

3. Keep Your Branch Current (Critical Step)

Before creating a PR, and anytime master moves ahead, rebase your branch:

# Fetch latest changes from all remotes
git fetch origin

# Rebase your branch on top of latest master
git rebase origin/master

If conflicts occur during rebase:

1. Fix conflicts in your editor
2. Test that everything still builds: ./gradlew build
3. Continue the rebase:

   git add .
   git rebase --continue

4. If you get stuck, abort and ask for help:

   git rebase --abort

After successful rebase, force-push (this is safe and necessary):

git push --force-with-lease  # Safer than git push -f

4. Clean Up Your Commits (Before PR)

Use interactive rebase to create clean, logical commits:

# Interactive rebase for last n commits
git rebase -i HEAD~3  # Example: last 3 commits

# In the editor, you can:
# - squash: combine commits
# - reword: change commit message  
# - drop: remove commits
# - reorder: change commit order

PR Quality Standards:

• ✅ Each commit should build and pass tests
• ✅ Commit messages should be descriptive
• ✅ Related changes should be in the same commit
• ✅ Unrelated changes should be in separate commits
• ❌ No "fix typo", "wip", or broken commits

5. Create Pull Request

# Final push after cleanup
git push --force-with-lease

# Create PR using GitHub CLI (optional)
gh pr create --title "Add feature X" --body "Description of changes"

What NOT to Do

❌ NEVER do these things:

# DON'T: Merge master into your branch
git merge master                    # This creates merge commits!
git pull origin master             # This might create merge commits!

# DON'T: Work directly on master  
git checkout master
git commit -m "direct change"      # Use branches instead!

# DON'T: Create merge commits
git merge feature/my-branch        # Maintainers handle PR merging

✅ ALWAYS do these instead:

# DO: Rebase your branch on master
git rebase origin/master

# DO: Use pull with rebase configured  
git pull                           # Safe with pull.rebase=true

# DO: Work in branches
git checkout -b feature/my-change

Emergency: Fixing a Broken Rebase

If you get into a confusing state during rebase:

# 1. Abort the rebase to start over
git rebase --abort

# 2. Make sure you have the latest master
git fetch origin

# 3. Try again with a clean approach
git rebase origin/master

# 4. If still stuck, ask for help on the team chat

GitHub Branch Protection Settings

For Repository Administrators: Configure GitHub to enforce this workflow:

Settings → Branches → Add rule for master branch:

• ✅ "Restrict pushes that create merge commits"
• ✅ "Require pull request reviews before merging"
• ✅ "Require status checks to pass before merging"
• ✅ "Require branches to be up to date before merging"
• ✅ "Include administrators" (enforce rules for everyone)

GitHub CLI setup (for administrators):

# Enable branch protection with merge commit prevention
gh api repos/xtclang/xvm/branches/master/protection \
  --method PUT \
  --field required_status_checks='{"strict":true,"checks":[]}' \
  --field enforce_admins=true \
  --field required_pull_request_reviews='{"required_approving_review_count":1}' \
  --field restrictions=null \
  --field allow_force_pushes=false \
  --field allow_deletions=false \
  --field block_creations=false \
  --field required_linear_history=true

The required_linear_history=true setting blocks merge commits and enforces the rebase-only workflow.

Why This Workflow Matters

Benefits of linear history:

• 🔍 Easy to follow: git log --oneline shows clear chronological development
• 🐛 Simple debugging: git bisect works reliably to find bugs
• 📈 Clean commits: Each commit represents a logical change
• 🚀 Fast builds: CI doesn't waste time on merge commit combinations
• 📚 Clear blame: git blame points to actual changes, not merge commits

Problems with merge commits:

• 🕸️ Complex history: Hard to understand what actually changed
• 🐛 Difficult bisection: Merge commits create confusing paths
• ⚡ CI overhead: More commit combinations to test
• 📊 Unclear metrics: Commit counts and author statistics get distorted

Status

Version 0.4. That's way before version 1.0. In other words, Ecstasy is about as mature as Windows 3.1 was.

Warning: The Ecstasy project is not yet certified for production use. This is a large and extremely ambitious project, and it may yet be several years before this project is certified for production use.

Our goal is to always honestly communicate the status of this project, and to respect those who contribute and use the project by facilitating a healthy, active community, and a useful, high-quality project. Whether you are looking to learn about language design and development, compiler technology, or the applicability of language design to the serverless cloud, we have a place for you here. Feel free to lurk. Feel free to fork the project. Feel free to contribute.

We only "get one chance to make a good first impression", and we are determined not to waste it. We will not ask developers to waste their time attempting to use an incomplete project, so if you are here for a work reason, it's probably still a bit too early for you to be using this for your day job. On the other hand, if you are here to learn and/or contribute, then you are right on time! Our doors are open.

License

The license for source code is Apache 2.0, unless explicitly noted. We chose Apache 2.0 for its compatibility with almost every reasonable use, and its compatibility with almost every license, reasonable or otherwise.

The license for documentation (including any the embedded markdown API documentation and/or derivative forms thereof) is Creative Commons CC-BY-4.0, unless explicitly noted.

To help ensure clean IP (which will help us keep this project free and open source), pull requests for source code changes require a signed contributor agreement to be submitted in advance. We use the Apache contributor model agreements (modified to identify this specific project), which can be found in the license directory. Contributors are required to sign and submit an Ecstasy Project Individual Contributor License Agreement (ICLA), or be a named employee on an Ecstasy Project Corporate Contributor License Agreement (CCLA), both derived directly from the Apache agreements of the same name. (Sorry for the paper-work! We hate it, too!)

The Ecstasy name is a trademark owned and administered by The Ecstasy Project. Unlicensed use of the Ecstasy trademark is prohibited and will constitute infringement.

All content of the project not covered by the above terms is probably an accident that we need to be made aware of, and remains (c) The Ecstasy Project, all rights reserved.

Layout

The project is organized as a number of subprojects, with the important ones to know about being:

• The Ecstasy core library is in the xvm/lib_ecstasy directory, and is conceptually like stdlib for C, or rt.jar for Java. When the XDK is built, the resulting module is located at xdk/lib/ecstasy.xtc. This module contains portions of the Ecstasy tool chain, including the lexer and parser. (Ecstasy source files use an .x extension, and are compiled into a single module file with an .xtc extension.)

• The Java tool chain (including an Ecstasy compiler and interpreter) is located in the xvm/javatools directory. When the XDK is built, the resulting .jar file is located at xdk/javatools/javatools.jar.

• There is an Ecstasy library in xvm/javatools_bridge that is used by the Java interpreter to boot-strap the runtime. When the XDK is built, the resulting module is located at xdk/javatools/javatools_bridge.xtc.

• The wiki documentation is online. There is an introduction to Ecstasy that is being written for new users. The wiki source code will (eventually) be found in the xvm/wiki project directory, and (as a distributable) in the xdk/doc directory of the built XDK.

• Various other directories will have a README.md file that explains their purpose.

To download the entire project from the terminal, you will need git installed. From the terminal, go to the directory where you want to create a local copy of the Ecstasy project, and:

git clone https://github.com/xtclang/xvm.git

(There is excellent online documentation for git at git-scm.com.)

To build the entire project, use the included Gradle Wrapper (recommended method):

./gradlew build

Or on Windows:

C:\> gradlew.bat build

Note: Always use the Gradle Wrapper (./gradlew) rather than a system-installed Gradle binary to ensure the correct Gradle version is used.

Note that Windows may require the JAVA_TOOLS_OPTIONS environment variable to be set to -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 in the Environment Variables window that can be accessed from Control Panel. This allows the Java compiler to automatically handle UTF-8 encoded files, and several of the Java source files used in the Ecstasy toolchain contain UTF-8 characters. Also, to change the default encoding used in Windows, go to the "Administrative" tab of the "Region" settings Window (also accessed from Control Panel), click the "Change system locale..." button and check the box labeled "Beta: Use UTF-8 for worldwide language support".

Instructions for getting started can be found in our Contributing to Ecstasy document.

Understanding Gradle Clean vs Make Clean

Important: Gradle's clean is fundamentally different from traditional make clean:

• Make clean: Simply deletes all build outputs ("delete everything" semantic)
• Gradle clean: Intelligently removes only outputs that need to be rebuilt, leveraging Gradle's incremental build system and caching

When to Use Clean

./gradlew clean

Gradle's incremental build system tracks input/output relationships and only rebuilds what has changed. You should rarely need to run clean because:

• Gradle automatically detects when files need to be rebuilt
• The build cache preserves intermediate outputs for faster rebuilds
• Clean invalidates all cached work, making subsequent builds slower

Only use clean when:

• You suspect build cache corruption
• You're troubleshooting unusual build behavior
• You're preparing for a completely fresh build for testing

Composite Build Limitation

Critical: Due to our parallel composite build architecture, never combine clean with other build tasks in a single command:

# ❌ DON'T DO THIS - will cause build failures
./gradlew clean build

# ✅ DO THIS INSTEAD - run separately
./gradlew clean
./gradlew build

The parallel composite build runs subprojects concurrently, and clean will interfere with other tasks that are simultaneously creating files, leading to race conditions and build failures.

Should you, for any reason, need to clear the caches, and really start fresh, you can run the script

./bin/purge-all-build-state.sh

Or do the equivalent actions manually:

1. Close any open XTC projects in your IDEs, to avoid restarting them with a large state change under the hood. Optionally, also close your IDE processes.
2. Kill all Gradle daemons.
3. Delete the $GRADLE_USER_HOME/cache and $GRADLE_USER_HOME/daemons directories. NOTE: this invalidates caches for all Gradle builds on your current system, and rebuilds a new Gradle version.
4. Run git clean -xfd in your build root. Note that this may also delete any IDE configuration that resides in your build. You may want to preserve e.g. the .idea directory, and then you can do git clean -xfd -e .idea or perform a dry run git clean -xfdn, to see what will be deleted. Note that if you are at this level of purging stuff, it's likely a bad idea to hang on to your IDE state anyway.

Debugging the build

The build should be debuggable through any IDE, for example IntelliJ, using its Gradle tooling API hook. You can run any task in the project in debug mode from within the IDE, with breakpoints in the build scripts and/or the underlying non-XTC code, for example in Javatools, to debug the compiler, runner or disassembler.

Augmenting the build output

XTC follow Gradle best practise, and you can run the build, or any task therein, with the standard verbosity flags. For example, to run the build with more verbose output, use:

./gradlew build --info --stacktrace

The build also supports Gradle build scans, which can be generated with:

./gradlew build --scan --stacktrace

Note that build scans are published to the Gradle online build scan repository (as configured through the gradle-enterprise settings plugin.), so make sure that you aren't logging any secrets, and avoid publishing build scans in "--debug" mode, as it may be a potential security hazard.

You can also combine the above flags, and use all other standard Gradle flags, like --stacktrace, and so on.

Tasks

To see the list of available tasks for the XDK build, use:

./gradlew tasks

Versioning and Publishing XDK artifacts

• Use publishLocalto publish an XDK build to the local Maven repository and a build specific repository directory.
• Use publishRemoteto publish and XDK build to the xtclang organization package repo on GitHub (a GitHub token with permissions is required).
• Use publish to run both of the above tasks.

Note: Some publish tasks may have race conditions due to parallel execution. If you encounter publishing errors:

./gradlew clean
./gradlew publishTask --no-parallel

Remember to run clean and the publish task separately due to our composite build architecture.

The group and version of the current XDK build and the XTC Plugin are currently defined in the properties file "version.properties". Here, we define the version of the current XDK and XTC Plugin, as well as their group. The default behavior is to only define the XDK, since at this point, the Plugin, while decoupled, tracks and maps to the XDK version pretty much 1-1. This can be taken apart with different semantic versioning, should we need to. Nothing is assuming the plugin has the same version or group as the XDK. It's just convenient for time being.

The file gradle/libs.versions.toml contains all internal and external by-artifact version dependencies to the XDK project. If you need to add a new plugin, library, or bundle, always define its details in this version catalog, and nowhere else. The XDK build logic, will dynamically plugin in values for the XDK and XTC Plugin artifacts that will be used only as references outside this file.

TODO: In the future we will also support tagging and publishing releases on GitHub, using JReleaser or a similar framework.

Typically, the project version of anything that is unreleased should be "x.y.z-SNAPSHOT", and the first action after tagging and uploading a release of the XDK, is usually changing the release version in "VERSION" in the xvm repository root, and (if the plugin is versioned separately, optionally in "plugin/VERSION") both by incrementing the micro version, and by adding a SNAPSHOT suffix. You will likely find yourself working in branches that use SNAPSHOT versions until they have made it into a release train. The CI/CD pipeline can very likely handle this automatically.

Bleeding Edge for Developers

If you would like to contribute to the Ecstasy Project, use the latest development version by building and installing locally:

./gradlew xdk:installDist

Note: this would be done after installing the XDK via brew, or through any other installation utility, depending on your platform. This will overwrite several libraries and files in any local installation.

For more information about the XTC DSL, please see the README.md file in the "plugin" project.

Releasing and Publishing

This is mostly relevant to the XDK development team with release management privileges. A version of the workflow for adding XTC releases is described here.

We plan to move to an automatic release model in the very near future, utilizing JRelease (and JPackage to generate our binary launchers). As an XTC/XDK developer, you do not have to understand all the details of the release model. The somewhat incomplete and rather manual release mode is current described here for completeness. It will soon be replaced with something familiar.

XDK Platform Releases

1. Take the current version of master and create a release branch.
2. Set the VERSION in the release branch project root to reflect the version of the release. Typically an ongoing development branch will be a "-SNAPSHOT" suffixed release, but not an official XTC release, which just has a group:name:version number
3. Build, tag and add the release using the GitHub release plugin.

XDK Platform Publishing

We have verified credentials for artifacts with the group "org.xtclang" at the best known community portals, and will start publishing there, as soon as we have an industrial strength release model completed.

The current semi-manual process looks like this:

1. ./gradlew publish to build the artifacts and verify they work. This will publish the artifacts to a local repositories and the XTC GitHub org repository.
2. To publish the plugin to Gradle Plugin Portal: ./gradlew :plugin:publishPlugins (publish the plugin to gradlePortal)
3. To publish the XDK distro to Maven Central: (... TODO ... )

You can already refer to the XDK and the XTC Plugin as external artifacts for your favourite XTC project, either by mnaually setting up a link to the XTC Org GitHub Maven Repository like this:

repositories {
   maven {
     url = https://maven.pkg.github.com/xtclang/xvm
     credentials {
        username = <your github user name>
        token = <a personal access token with read:package privileges on GitHub Maven Packages>
   }
}

or by simply publishing the XDK and XDK Plugin to your mavenLocal repository, and adding that to the configuration of your XTC project, if it's not there already:

repositories {
   mavenLocal()
}

Related Repositories

The xtclang organization maintains several repositories supporting the Ecstasy ecosystem:

Core Platform

• platform - Ecstasy "Platform as a Service" implementation for cloud deployment

Distribution & Packaging

• xdk-release - Cross-platform XDK distribution and release automation
• homebrew-xvm - Homebrew tap for macOS/Linux XDK installations

Research & Extensions

• jmixin - Java port of Ecstasy mixin functionality for research and comparison

Questions?

To submit a contributor agreement, sign up for very hard work, fork over a giant pile of cash, or in case of emergency: "info at xtclang dot org", but please understand if we cannot respond to every e-mail. Thank you.

Appendix: Gradle fundamentals

We have tried very hard to create an easy-to-use build system based on industry standards and expected behavior. These days, most software is based on the Maven/Gradle model, which provides repositories of semantically versioned artifacts, cached incremental builds and mature support for containerization.

The principle of least astonishment permeates the philosophy behind the entire build system. This means that a modern developer, should be immediately familiar with how to build and run the XDK project, i.e. clone it from GitHub and execute "./gradlew build". It should also import complaint free, and with dependency chains understood by any IDE that has support for Gradle projects. "It should just work", out of the box, and should look familiar to any developer with basic experience as a Gradle user. Nothing should require more than a single command like to build or execute the system or anything built on top of it.

Implementing language support for an alien language on top of Gradle, however, is a fairly complex undertaking, and requires deeper knowledge of the Gradle architecture. It is our firm belief, though, that the user should not have to drill down to these levels, unless he/she specifically wants to. As it is, any open source developer today still needs to grasp some basic fundamentals about artifacts and the Gradle build system. This is not just our assumption; it is actually industry-wide.

We believe the following concepts are necessary to understand, in order to work with XDK projects or the XDK. None of them are at all specific to XTC:

• The concept of "gradlew" and "mvnw" (or "gradlew.bat" and "mvnw.bat" on Windows) wrappers, and why it should ALWAYS be used instead of a "gradle" binary on the local system, for any repository that ships it with its build.
• The concept of a versioned Maven artifact, and that its descriptor "group:artifactId:version" is its "global address", no matter how it is resolved on the lower abstraction layer.
• The concept of release vs snapshot artifact versions in the Maven model.
• The concept of local (mostly mavenLocal()) and remote artifact repositories, and how they are used by a maven build.
• The concept of the Maven/Gradle build lifecycle, its fundamental tasks, and how they depend on each other ("clean", "assemble", "build" and "check").
• The concept of the Gradle/Maven cache, build daemons, and why "clean" is not what you think
  of as "clean" in a C++ Makefile and why is it often better not to use it, in a cached, incrementally built Gradle project.
• The concept of Maven/Gradle source sets, like "main", "resources" and "test".
• The concept of a Gradle build scan, and understanding how to inspect it and how to use it to spot build issues.
• The standard flags that can be used to control Gradle debug log levels, --info, -q, --stacktrace and so on.
• The concept of goal of self-contained software, which specifies its complete dependencies as part of its source controlled configuration.
  1. On the Maven model level, this means semantically versioned Maven artifacts.
  2. On the software build and execution level, this also means specific versions of external pieces of software, for example Java, NodeJS or Yarn. This also means that we CAN and SHOULD always be able to containerize for development purposes.

Today, it is pretty safe to assume that most open source developers who has worked on any Gradle or Maven based project has at least the most important parts of the above knowledge. We have spent significant architectural effort to ensure that an adopter who wants to become an XTC or XDK user or developer does not need to acquire any knowledge that is more domain specific than concepts listed above. None of these concepts are specific to the XTC platform, but should be familiar to most software developers who have worked on projects with Maven style build systems.

We will also work on IDE Language support as soon as we have enough cycles to do so, which should make getting up to speed with XTC and even less complicated process.