Inbuilt types
Aki has a number of inbuilt types that are used to represent basic data types. These types are used to represent numbers, characters, and other basic data types. Unlike as in C++, the types are the same across all platforms.
byte // 8 bit unsigned integer, guaranteed to be 8 bits on *all* platforms (equal to u8)
i8
i16
i32
i64
i128
u8
u16
u32
u64
u128
The integer types are signed and unsigned integers of various sizes. The i prefix denotes signed integers, while the u prefix denotes unsigned integers. The number following the prefix denotes the number of bits used to represent the integer.
f8 // not common
f16 // half float
f32 // most common the default floating point type in c++
f64 // would be a double in c++
Character types are used to represent single characters. The c prefix denotes character types. The number following the prefix denotes the number of bits used to represent the character.
c8 // utf8 character
c16 // utf16 character
c32 // utf32 character
You can declare an array of characters using the character types:
let characters: [c8, ...] = {'a','b','c'};
// or:
let characters: [c8, 3] = "abc";
Since the character sequences are stored in rdata, you can also just use a u8 reference to a string literal:
let characters: &u8 = "abc";
It is recommended to use c8 for most cases, as it uses the uf8 encoding, which is the most common encoding for characters.
Aki will try its best to reencode the characters into the target language's encoding.
bool
Aki also has an inbuilt slice type that is used to represent a view into an array. Slices are used to represent a contiguous sequence of elements in an array. TBD