NXD Development Roadmap

Phase 1

Foundation & Public Presence

Status: Complete

• ✅ Project scaffolding
• ✅ Base documentation
• ✅ AI documentation review
• ✅ Human documentation review
• ✅ Public website
• ✅ Social media presence
• ✅ Public repositories
• ✅ MIT license
• ✅ Email and support channels
• ✅ Branding kit
• ✅ Versioning strategy
• ✅ Contribution guidelines
• ✅ Code of Conduct
• ✅ Vision and language philosophy

Exit Criteria:

• ✅ NXD has an established public identity
• ✅ Project governance and contribution documents are published
• ✅ Public development and communication channels are operational

Phase 2

Compiler Pipeline Foundation

Status: Complete

Compiler Front End:

• ✅ Scanner and lexer foundation
• ✅ Parser foundation
• ✅ AST generation
• ✅ Semantic analysis foundation
• ✅ NXD language semantics foundation
• ✅ Diagnostic framework
• ✅ Warning diagnostics
• ✅ Error diagnostics
• ✅ Compiler front end rewritten in Rust

Intermediate Representation:

• ✅ Lowering pipeline
• ✅ JSON IR
• ✅ Rust IR loader
• ✅ IR root structure
• ✅ Shared semantic representation

Initial Backend:

• ✅ Nim backend foundation
• ✅ Initial NXD-to-Nim lowering

Exit Criteria:

• ✅ Valid NXD source can move through the compiler pipeline
• ✅ Invalid source produces structured diagnostics
• ✅ The shared IR can represent the current core language
• ✅ The Nim backend can lower supported NXD programs

Phase 3

Language Stabilization & Nim Conformance

Status: In Progress

Language Refinement:

• 🔄 Parser refinement
• 🔄 Lexer refinement
• 🔄 Semantic rule refinement
• 🔄 Diagnostic coverage expansion
• 🔄 Literal validation refinement
• 🔄 Trait and implementation validation
• 🔄 Member-access semantics
• 🔄 Core language behavior stabilization

Validation:

• ✅ Validation framework
• ✅ Positive validation suite
• ✅ Negative validation suite
• ✅ Test documentation standards
• 🔄 Positive validation expansion
• 🔄 Negative validation expansion
• 🔄 Nim conformance validation
• 🔄 Backend-independent test corpus
• ⬜ Public conformance matrix

Automation:

• 🔄 Continuous integration
• ⬜ Automated regression testing
• ⬜ Release artifact validation

Exit Criteria:

• Positive validation is substantially complete
• Negative validation is substantially complete
• Nim output conforms to documented NXD behavior
• Compiler regressions are checked automatically
• Core language behavior is sufficiently stable for preview use

Phase 4

Developer Tooling & Technical Preview

Status: In Progress

VS Code Extension:

• ✅ Dedicated extension repository
• ✅ VSIX packaging
• ✅ Visual Studio Marketplace publication
• ✅ Syntax highlighting
• ✅ File icons
• ✅ Basic code completion
• ✅ Error diagnostics
• ✅ Warning diagnostics
• 🔄 Go to definition
• 🔄 Hover information
• ⬜ Document symbols
• ⬜ Extension release automation

Preview Environment:

• ⬜ End-to-end NXD-to-Nim compiler integration
• ⬜ Web compilation service
• ⬜ Browser-based playground
• ⬜ Playground security review
• ⬜ Performance baseline
• ⬜ Technical Preview release
• ⬜ Continuous deployment

Exit Criteria:

• The extension supports the essential editing workflow
• The compiler can be exercised through a documented preview path
• The playground has appropriate execution safeguards
• Technical Preview limitations are documented
• Preview builds and artifacts can be published consistently

Phase 5

Runtime & Concurrency Semantics

Status: Exploratory

Language Semantics:

• 🔄 Define task semantics
• 🔄 Define synchronization semantics
• 🔄 Define channel semantics
• 🔄 Define failure and cancellation behavior
• 🔄 Define backend-independent concurrency rules

Runtime Architecture:

• 🔄 Runtime feasibility study
• ⬜ Runtime architecture proposal
• ⬜ NXD runtime prototype
• ⬜ Runtime validation suite
• ⬜ Formal semantics draft

Exit Criteria:

• Concurrency behavior is defined at the NXD language level
• Runtime responsibilities are separated from backend behavior
• The proposed semantics can be represented in the shared IR
• At least one backend can demonstrate the proposed model

Phase 6

D Backend & Multi-Backend Validation

Status: Planned

D Backend:

• ⬜ D backend architecture
• ⬜ D code generation
• ⬜ D runtime integration
• ⬜ D positive validation
• ⬜ D negative validation
• ⬜ Nim and D conformance comparison
• ⬜ Cross-backend regression testing
• ⬜ Public multi-backend conformance matrix

Exit Criteria:

• Supported NXD programs can target Nim or D
• Both backends follow the same documented NXD semantics
• Backend differences and limitations are documented
• Shared tests run against both backends

Phase 7

Elixir Backend & Ecosystem Growth

Status: Planned

Elixir Backend:

• ⬜ Elixir backend architecture
• ⬜ Elixir code generation
• ⬜ Elixir runtime integration
• ⬜ Elixir positive validation
• ⬜ Elixir negative validation
• ⬜ Three-backend conformance validation

Project Growth:

• ⬜ Community governance model
• ⬜ External contributor onboarding
• ⬜ Maintainer procedures
• ⬜ Support model
• ⬜ Long-term stability policy

Exit Criteria:

• Nim, D, and Elixir share documented core semantics
• Backend-specific limitations are publicly documented
• External contributions can be reviewed and integrated consistently
• Support and maintenance expectations are defined

Phase 8

Release Candidate & NXD v1.0

Status: Planned

• ⬜ Core language freeze
• ⬜ Stable language specification
• ⬜ Stable compiler interfaces
• ⬜ Documentation freeze
• ⬜ Security audit
• ⬜ Performance and regression baseline
• ⬜ Release Candidate 1
• ⬜ Release Candidate validation
• ⬜ Launch checklist
• ⬜ NXD v1.0

Exit Criteria:

• The documented core language is frozen for v1.0
• Release-blocking diagnostics and compiler defects are resolved
• Supported backends meet the published conformance requirements
• Installation, contribution, and migration documentation are complete
• NXD v1.0 artifacts can be reproduced and published consistently