v4.1.1

VirtLang v4.1.1 Release Notes: Critical Short-Circuiting Fix for Logical Operators

We are issuing a patch release, VirtLang v4.1.1, to address a critical bug in the logical operator implementation introduced in v4.1.0. This update ensures that the && and || operators correctly perform short-circuit evaluation, a fundamental behavior for these operators in modern languages.

🐛 Bug Fixes

Corrected Short-Circuit Evaluation for && and || Operators

• Problem: In v4.1.0, the right-hand side of a logical expression was always evaluated, regardless of the value of the left-hand side. This violated the principle of short-circuiting. For example, in an expression like false && someFunction(), the someFunction() was incorrectly called even though the outcome of the expression was already determined by the false value. This could lead to unexpected side effects and performance degradation.
• Solution: The evaluation logic for logical expressions (evaluator/evalLogicEx.go) has been rewritten to correctly implement short-circuiting. The interpreter now behaves as expected:
  • For && (AND), the right-hand side is only evaluated if the left-hand side is truthy.
  • For || (OR), the right-hand side is only evaluated if the left-hand side is falsy.
• Impact: This fix restores the correct, expected behavior of the language, prevents unintended function calls, and improves performance by avoiding unnecessary evaluations.

⚙️ Other Improvements

• Documentation: The auto-generated API documentation (DOCS.md) has been updated to include the missing entries for the LogicalExpr and LogicalOperator types that were introduced in v4.1.0.
• Code Quality: Minor refactoring was done in the evaluator for better structure, and an error message for unknown logical operators was corrected from "Unknown comparison operator" to "Unknown logical operator."

🧪 Testing

• To ensure the robustness of this fix, new, specific test cases have been added to the evaluator suite.
• These tests use functions with side effects (modifying an array) to rigorously verify that the right-hand side of an expression is not executed when a short-circuit should occur.

⚠️ Upgrade Notes

• This is a critical bug-fix release.
• All users of v4.1.0 are strongly encouraged to upgrade to v4.1.1 immediately to ensure correct program execution.
• Code that unintentionally relied on the buggy, non-short-circuiting behavior will now execute correctly, which may alter program flow to its intended state.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to @dev-kas for quickly identifying and resolving this critical issue.