Roadmap to 1.0

[allison-casey]

Hey everybody! I wanted to give y'all an update on what's going on with Hy as we push
towards getting Hy 1.0 out the door and the reasoning behind some of the chnages
we're making in the process.

Hy has been through a pretty extended development process spanning almost seven years
with contributions from many different people at different times. And if you've been
around for some of that, you might know that Hy has been a lot of things throughout
those years (remember when null was a thing?).

While contributors, syntax, and language features have changed, the "lipstick on python"
philosophy has stayed the same, and only continued to grown in importance over the years.
Hy 1.0 represents the full embrace of that philosophy. We believe that Hy should be
lispy python. That Hy should embrace all of the things that make Python great and
improve where we can by pulling from lisp tradition. So what's actually changing and why?

1. A general shift towards making things act more like their python counterparts. Making
   cut consistent with python slice, lambda lists use python's **/* unpack syntax
   for args and kwargs, not mangling leading -- for dunder variables, etc
   • Why?:: These differences, both in syntax and output, have led to numerous subtle
     bugs and confusion among users when their lispy python doesn't end up
     acting like python.
2. Remove the builtins injection machinery and move the current core hy library of
   utility functions and macros to a dedicated companion python package.
   • Why?:: Trying to create a Hy builtins on top of Python's builtins has created
     a number of long standing bugs and unexpected behaviors. The solutions
     that have been proposed to fix this and maintain an integrated Hy prelude
     would end up being unacceptably complex or interfere with Hy's ability
     to interop cleanly with Python. In addition, it makes the compiler
     more manageable for us by insulating it from the bikeshedding that
     necessarily occurs around these features which, ultimately, aren't
     core features of the language.

We're a small team, and we want to see Hy reach 1.0 as much as you do. We think that this
is the fastest, cleanest way to make Hy stable and accessible to users in a reasonable
timeframe. You can track the progress we've been making in our 1.0 project board
here and in particular the great core
shakeup issue #1992. As always, we're open to suggestions and feedback regarding these
changes, and we hope this answers your questions about where this is all going and why.

[andrewgiessel]

Thank you so much for writing this up! I really appreciate it. Do we have an estimate or guess as to the 1.0 timeline? End of summer? End of year?

[andrewgiessel]

non-binding of course =)

[allison-casey]

officially, when its done.

In my non-binding personal opinion, i would non-bindingly be surprised if there wasn't a hypothetical something out this year. If that doesn't happen feel free to excoriate me (and only me) from the rooftop of your nearest skyscraper 👍

[fergusq]

Any news on the 1.0 project? The board and the issue linked in the post are closed. Is there a new roadmap?

[Kodiologist]

Currently, no. This was Allie's interest, and she hasn't been active on Hy for a few months. My philosophy is not to promise 1.0 until I actually know when it's coming out, and my plan is to wait until we've had a few successive releases with no breaking changes and then call the next one 1.0.

[Kodiologist]

Here's an update. I have a vision for Hy 1.0 at this point. It's mostly a matter of attending to a lot of issues that have been open for years. I still don't have a feel for how long it will all take, but it seems Hy time for me to get serious about this.

[Kodiologist]

Update: I no longer have any breaking changes planned for Hy 1.0. Best case is that all my further development on Hy before 1.0 is writing documentation and a few bug fixes. Worst case is that some of the latest features I've added turn out to have fundamental problems and I need to rethink things (read: make yet more breaking changes).