0.2.0

[0.2.0] - 2026-07-25

Added

• A complete multi-element matching family on Span, MutableSpan,
  InlineArray, and RawSpan: firstRange(of:), lastRange(of:),
  contains(_ pattern:), starts(with:), and ends(with:), with documented
  empty-pattern semantics.
• Multi-element separator forms of forEachSplit and the split cursors,
  including compiler-checked lifetime dependence on both the base and separator.
• Full read-only RawSpan parity: predicate and byte search, last-index search,
  min/max, comparison, trimming, window visitation, chunk/window/split cursors,
  and predicate-based splitting.
• C-locale ASCII whitespace trimming conveniences on Span<UInt8> and
  RawSpan. The six-byte set includes vertical tab; the WHATWG divergence is
  explicit in the API documentation.
• RawSpan.validatedUTF8(), an Apple-26-available bridge to the standard
  library's UTF8Span(validating:) rather than a duplicate validator.
• A “Parsing bytes without allocating” DocC article, lifetime-diagnostics
  cookbook, parser regression test, and executable zero-malloc parsing benchmark.

Changed

• Cursor factories now mirror familiar stdlib/swift-algorithms spellings:
  chunks(ofCount:), windows(ofCount:), and
  split(separator:maxSplits:omittingEmptySubsequences:), with byte-count forms
  on RawSpan.
• The 0.1.x chunkCursor, windowCursor, and splitCursor spellings remain as
  deprecated forwarders for source compatibility and are planned for removal in
  0.3.0.
• Benchmarks now cover absent, end-of-input, and 10%-depth byte and pattern
  matches through the public Span/RawSpan APIs. Full results record zero
  allocations through p99 on every borrowed-view path, and the parser has a
  checked static zero-allocation threshold.

Fixed

• Corrected cursor next() lifetime dependence from @_lifetime(&self) to
  @_lifetime(copy self). Callers can now hold several pieces simultaneously,
  nest cursors, and interleave traversals while genuine storage escapes remain
  compiler errors. Positive lifetime-ergonomics tests and compile-fail fixtures
  pin both sides of the rule.

Performance

• Added portable memchr/memcmp fast paths for Span<UInt8>, Span<Int8>,
  and RawSpan first-index, first-range, prefix/suffix, and equality operations,
  with scalar fallbacks and differential tests. Reverse search remains scalar
  because Darwin does not provide memrchr.