Language support for XZACT — the general-purpose compiled programming language with formal English syntax that compiles to native code via C transpilation and generates compliance artifacts automatically as a byproduct of compilation.

What's New in v0.4.0

Logical operators: and also, or else — highlighted as control flow
For-each loops: For each item in list — native iteration over lists
Loop control: stop repeating (break), skip to next repeat (continue)
Decrement: decrement variable by N
Multi-argument functions: given param1 of type X and param2 of type Y
List set-at-index: set list at index to value
Character from code point: character from 65 → "A"
Windows PowerShell fix: Build/Run commands now use cmd /c to avoid UTF-16 encoding corruption
Compiler auto-detection: Finds xzactc.exe in sibling xact-compiler/examples/ directory
14 new snippets: for-each, logical operators, break/continue, decrement, multi-arg functions, countdown loop, and more

Features

Syntax Highlighting

Full TextMate grammar for all XZACT sentence forms with distinct colors for:

Modal verbs: shall (blue), must (red), should (yellow), may (green)
Logical operators: and also, or else (purple, bold)
Loop control: stop repeating, skip to next repeat (red)
Entity declarations, action definitions, relationships, enumerations
Illegal pronouns (highlighted as errors per LEX-001)
Type keywords: text, whole number, decimal number, true/false, date, time

Snippets

35+ snippets covering all sentence forms. Type a prefix and press Tab:

Prefix	Expands to
`let-int`	Integer variable declaration
`let-text`	Text variable declaration
`if-block`	If statement with block body
`if-else`	If-Otherwise block
`while`	While loop
`to-do`	Void function with parameter
`to-get`	Returning function with parameter
`to-do-multi`	Void function with multiple parameters
`to-get-multi`	Returning function with multiple parameters
`for-each-list`	For-each loop over a list
`and-also`	Logical AND condition
`or-else`	Logical OR condition
`break`	Stop repeating (break)
`continue`	Skip to next repeat (continue)
`decrement`	Decrement a variable
`countdown`	Countdown loop with decrement
`char-from`	Character from ASCII code point
`set-at`	Set list element at index
`cli-program`	CLI program template with argument handling
`xzact-program`	Basic program template

Commands

Command	Keybinding	Description
XZACT: Build	Ctrl+Shift+B	Compile .xzact → .c → native binary
XZACT: Run	Ctrl+Shift+R	Build and execute
XZACT: Check Quality	—	Emit generated C source
XZACT: Show Artifacts	—	Open the artifact dashboard panel

Artifact Dashboard

Open the XZACT: Show Artifacts panel to see six tabs of compliance output:

Summary — requirement counts, quality score, safety invariants
Traceability — Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM)
Quality — INCOSE 8-pass quality scores
Test — Auto-generated test stubs
Safety — MUST invariant proof records
IR — Generated C source

Theme

Includes "XZACT Dark" — a theme optimized for XZACT's formal English syntax with distinct modal verb coloring and v0.4.0 scopes for logical operators and loop control.

Setup

Windows (Quick Start)

cd C:\path\to\xact-compiler\examples

# Build the compiler from pre-generated C source (one-time)
gcc -O2 -o xzactc.exe xzactc_bin.c

# Compile and run any .xzact file
cmd /c ".\xzactc.exe hello.xzact > hello.c"
gcc -O2 -o hello.exe hello.c
.\hello.exe

Linux / macOS

cd xact-compiler/examples

# Build the compiler (one-time)
gcc -O2 -o xzactc xzactc_bin.c

# Compile and run
./xzactc hello.xzact > hello.c
gcc -O2 -o hello hello.c
./hello

Extension Installation

Install from .vsix:

code --install-extension Xzact-Lang-0.4.0.vsix

Or use the PowerShell install script:

.\install.ps1

Extension Settings

Setting	Default	Description
`xzact.compilerPath`	(auto)	Path to xzactc binary. Auto-detects sibling `xact-compiler/examples/`
`xzact.backend`	`c`	Code generation backend (`c` or `llvm`)
`xzact.pythonPath`	`python3`	Python interpreter for the language server
`xzact.qualityLevel`	`normal`	Quality engine strictness

File Extensions

The extension activates for .xzact and .xact files.

Compilation Pipeline

.xzact source → xzactc (self-hosted parser) → C source → GCC → native binary

The compiler is itself written in XZACT and achieves a self-hosting fixed point (gen2 = gen3).

Xzact-Lang