Contributing to Gat

We welcome contributions to the Gat compiler, standard library, documentation, and tooling!

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1. Development Setup

Gat is self-hosting and requires no heavy build systems or external compilers:

• On Windows: Requires PowerShell.
• On Linux: Requires bash and a working 64-bit kernel (or WSL2).

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/DanielcoderX/gat.git
cd gat

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2. Running Tests & Self-Hosting Verification

Before submitting changes, always run the full test and verification suite:

Windows

.\test.ps1

This runs:

1. Stage 2 compiler compilation (bin/gatc.exe -> bin/gatc-stage2.exe).
2. Stage 3 compiler compilation (bin/gatc-stage2.exe -> bin/gatc-stage3.exe).
3. Bitwise identity check between Stage 2 and Stage 3 (fc /b).
4. 23 feature and optimization test suites.
5. 7 negative compiler diagnostics tests.
6. Language Server (LSP) tests.
7. Linux direct syscall suite via WSL (if installed).

Linux (WSL / Native)

# Run the Linux direct syscall suite
./bin/gatc examples/test_linux_suite.gat -o bin/test_linux_suite --target=linux
./bin/test_linux_suite

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3. Coding Guidelines

1. Self-Hosting Discipline: When editing compiler source files (src/*.gat), ensure you only use language features currently supported by the baseline bootstrap compiler (bin/gatc.exe).
2. Deterministic Output: Compiler code generation must be deterministic; changes must not break the bitwise-identical stage comparison.
3. Commit Convention: We follow Conventional Commits (e.g. feat: ..., fix: ..., docs: ..., perf: ..., test: ...).