Changelog

v1.21.0 (2026) — "The Book Edition" 🧊

Image sprites, WebAudio synth, and a language freeze

New Stdlib

Image sprites in frankiecanvas

load_image(path) reads a PNG/JPEG/GIF file and returns {src: "data:image/...;base64,..."}. Call it once before run_game, not per frame — it hits disk.
draw_image(g, x, y, image, w: 1, h: 1) places the image at cell (x, y), sized w × h cells. Every connected browser decodes and caches the image the first time it's drawn; later frames just resend coordinates.
frankiegame (terminal) gained matching load_image/draw_image calls for API parity — since a tty can't show real pixels, draw_image there renders a ▒ placeholder block instead. The same function calls compile against either engine.

WebAudio synth API

synth_play(g, freq: 440, wave: "sine", dur: 0.08, gain: 0.06) plays a real oscillator tone in every connected browser. wave is "sine", "square", "sawtooth", or "triangle".
game_beep(g) is now a thin wrapper over synth_play (520Hz square, 0.07s) — fully backward compatible.
frankiegame (terminal) gained synth_play too, mapped to the terminal bell — parameters are accepted but ignored, so cross-engine code still compiles.

file_read_base64(path)

Binary-safe file read + Base64 encode in one call. file_read is text-mode and corrupts binary data (images, audio, zip files); load_image uses file_read_base64 internally. Generally useful for embedding any binary file as text.

Fixes

Data-loss bug in frankiec fmt — a single-statement block whose body was an assignment or a postfix if/unless (e.g. game["shots"].each do |s| hit = true if collide?(...) end) silently formatted to do |s| nil end, discarding the logic. _is_stmt_only() didn't recognize Assign, PostfixIf, and several other statement node types. Fixed by falling back to the safe multi-line block form for any statement kind that can't be inlined. If you ran frankiec fmt --write on code with this pattern before v1.21, it's worth a diff review.

🧊 Language Freeze

v1.21 is the last planned feature release for a while — Frankie is language-frozen while "The Book of Frankie" is written against this exact version. Grammar, stdlib signatures, and stitch APIs are locked; patch releases (bug fixes, doc corrections) continue as normal, but no new syntax or behavior changes until the freeze lifts.

Compatibility notes

Fully backward compatible. game_beep behaves identically to v1.20. No existing function signatures changed — synth_play and draw_image are additive on both stitches.

v1.20.1 (2026)

Patch: Arrow keys, `frankiec examples`, Homebrew

Arrow keys work in terminal games. term_key() was reading from Python's buffered stdin, which swallowed the tail of arrow-key escape sequences — every arrow decoded as esc. It now reads raw bytes from the file descriptor. Snake finally obeys.
frankiec examples [name] — list the bundled examples and showcase games, or copy one into the current directory ready to run (frankiec examples snake && cd snake && frankiec run main.fk). Works for brew, git-clone, and install.py installs alike.
Homebrew support — official formula in packaging/homebrew/: brew tap atejada/frankie && brew trust atejada/frankie && brew install frankie. Standard stitches now also resolve from the installation directory, so brew installs work out of the box.

v1.20.0 (2026)

Theme: "It's Alive… and Playing" — two game engines, one shared API

New Language Features

The shared engine API

game_new(width:, height:, fps:), on_key, on_any_key, on_tick, run_game, stop_game, clear, draw, draw_sprite, text, collide? (AABB), render_frame, game_beep
Write a game once against this API — the stitch line picks the renderer
Also: max_ticks: to bound the loop for CI-safe, headless test runs

frankiegame — terminal renderer

Raw keyboard mode (no Enter needed) via stdlib termios; arrows map to "up"/"down"/"left"/"right"; q quits by default
Double-buffered ANSI rendering — one write per frame, flicker-free
Headless-safe: without a tty, input and rendering no-op, so test suites can play the game via max_ticks + render_frame
New stdlib TUI primitives: term_raw_on/off, term_key, term_size, term_hide_cursor/term_show_cursor, term_clear, term_render, clock_ms, beep

frankiecanvas — browser renderer

Same API, real pixels: an HTML5 canvas page served from Frankie's own web server, draw ops streamed over WebSockets (~20–30 fps)
Key and mouse events stream back with the same key names as the terminal; mouse clicks arrive as "click:x,y"
rect(g, x, y, w, h, color), on_player_key (every browser tab is a player), players_count(g) — multiplayer costs zero extra code, built on the v1.18 WebSocket architecture

frankiec new --game

Scaffolds a playable starter (a zombie you steer with the arrows) with frankiegame pre-installed and lockfile-pinned

Showcase games (examples/projects/)

🐍 snake/ (terminal) — the whole engine API in ~80 lines
🧟 zombie_invaders/ (browser) — rects, sprites, waves, beeps
🏓 pong/ (browser) — multiplayer via on_player_key, two tabs, one ball

Fixes

Blocks whose single statement is an assignment (do |g| g["x"] = 1 end) or a postfix conditional now compile correctly (previously a codegen error)

v1.19.0 (2026)

Theme: "Under the microscope" — types, a real debugger, coverage

New Language Features

Gradual type annotations

def area(r: Float) -> Float — optional everywhere; un-annotated code is untouched, and annotations cost nothing at runtime
Checked statically by frankiec check, in CI, and live in the editor via the LSP
Type names: Int/Integer, Float/Number, String/Str, Bool/Boolean, Vector, Hash, Lambda, Range, Nil, Any
Return annotations are checked against every return and the implicit final expression; simple local inference follows literals, arithmetic, and calls to annotated functions
Coexists with keyword defaults: def connect(host: String, port: 5432) — a bare reserved type name is an annotation, anything else is still a keyword default

Tooling

Full stepping debugger

breakpoint grew up: (fkdb) now understands s (step into calls), n (next, step over), stack (call stack, innermost first), vars (clean locals, no stdlib noise), any expression, and c (continue)
frankiec run --debug app.fk breaks at the very first line — step through a program you've never read
Line-accurate everywhere via the compiler's line maps, including inside required files

Test coverage — frankiec test --coverage

Percentages and missing-line ranges mapped back to .fk source
Writes .frankie_coverage.json — the LSP reads it and shows uncovered lines as hints in the editor

frankiec docs --html

Renders ## doc-comments (with @param/@return/@example) into a styled single-page HTML matching the website's theme: frankiec docs --html mystitch.fk --output mystitch.html

Stitch installs from any URL

frankiec stitch install https://example.com/stitches/foo.fk — pinned in stitch.lock with the URL recorded as its source; verify and update work exactly as with registry stitches

New Stdlib

TLS clients + UDP sockets

ws_connect("wss://...") — TLS WebSockets
tcp_connect(host, port, tls: true) — TLS TCP, certificate-verified via stdlib ssl
udp_listen(port) → socket with .recv() (returns {data:, host:, port:}) and .send_to(host, port, msg)
udp_send(host, port, msg) — fire-and-forget
Server-side TLS stays on the wish list

Showcase Projects

Three complete programs in examples/projects/, each a single .fk file, each shippable as one .py via frankiec bundle:

🧟 zombie_chat/ — multi-room WebSocket chat, server + web UI in one file
⚡ word_reanimator/ — multiplayer browser hangman, shared state over WebSockets
💰 frankie_ledger/ — terminal expense tracker: SQLite, stitches + stitch.lock, R-style stats

Fixes

The formatter now round-trips return x if cond and similar postfix statements correctly (previously could collapse to nil)

v1.18.0 (2026)

Theme: "From projects to products" — edit, ship, connect, debug

Tooling

Language Server — frankiec lsp

LSP over stdio, pure Python stdlib — live diagnostics (via the v1.17 analyzer + lex/parse errors), completion (stdlib, user symbols, keywords) and hover docs (## doc-comments included)
VS Code extension upgraded from grammar-only to a full client; Neovim, Helix and Zed setups documented

frankiec bundle <file.fk> [-o out.py]

Compiles a program plus every statically referenced require/import/stitch into ONE self-contained .py with the stdlib inlined
Runs anywhere with python3 out.py — no Frankie installation needed
Dynamic paths (computed at runtime) can't be bundled and produce a warning

Stitch lockfile

frankiec stitch install writes stitch.lock (sha256, source, size, date)
frankiec stitch verify — ✓ pinned / ⚠ modified / ✗ missing, exit 1 on problems (CI-ready)
frankiec stitch update [name] re-fetches + re-pins

Project-wide check and fmt

Both commands accept directories and recurse into .fk files: frankiec check ., frankiec fmt --write .

New Language Features

WebSockets — app.websocket + ws_connect

app.websocket("/ws/:room") do |ws| ... end on the built-in server — hand-rolled RFC 6455 (handshake, framing, ping/pong, close), one thread per connection, auto-close on handler return
ws_connect("ws://host:port/path") client; ws.send / ws.recv / ws.close / ws.params / ws.path / ws.peer

breakpoint — debugger-lite

Pauses into a scoped REPL: vars, where, exit, c, or any Frankie expression evaluated against the paused scope
Skipped with a notice when stdin isn't a terminal — CI never hangs
Postfix conditions work: breakpoint if qty > 100

enum Status(pending, active, done)

Members are their own names as strings: Status.pending → "pending"
Status.values, Status.include?(x), iteration and case/when matching
Contextual keyword — enum stays valid as a variable name

benchmark ["label"] do ... end

Times a block, prints ⏱ label: 12.3ms, returns the elapsed ms
Works as an expression: ms = benchmark "x" do ... end

Numeric literals

Underscore separators: 1_000_000, 3.141_592
Scientific notation: 1e6, 2.5e-3, 1E+9

Set operations on vectors

.union(v) / .intersect(v) / .difference(v) — order-preserving, deduplicating

Fixes

Formatter: parenthesizes indexed expressions correctly — (a | b)["x"] no longer loses its parens on reformat
Formatter emits floats the lexer can always re-read (1e-06 now lexes thanks to scientific-notation support)
loop/spawn/record/import etc. are now valid as the last statement of a web route handler (previously: codegen crash)

v1.17.0 (2026)

Theme: "Programs that grow" — namespacing, real checking, typed errors

New Language Features

Namespaced imports — import "lib/math" as math

Loads a .fk file into its own namespace: math.circle_area(5), math.PI
Alias optional — import "lib/math" defines math
Modules are cached; require is unchanged and still merges into scope

User-defined error types — error TypeName

error TimeoutError declares a type; raise TimeoutError, "msg" raises it
New Ruby-style rescue binding: rescue TimeoutError => e (old rescue Type e still works)
Typed raises auto-declare their type; generic rescue still catches everything
assert_raises_typed understands user-defined types
User types take precedence over Python builtins of the same name

First-class ranges

Ranges print in Frankie syntax: 1..10 (not range(1, 11))
.to_vec / .to_a, .include?, .step(n), .sum, .first, .last
case/when with a range value now tests membership: when 90..100

Record dot access — p.x

record Point(x, y) instances now support p1.x (previously p1["x"] only)
Same dispatch powers module constants and zero-arg methods uniformly

test blocks — test "name", tags: ["slow"] do ... end

Named, filterable test groups for the built-in harness (contextual keyword)

New Stdlib

parallel_map(vec, workers: 4) do |x| ... end

Thread-pool map via concurrent.futures — results in input order, first worker exception re-raised. Built for I/O-bound work.

TCP sockets — tcp_connect / tcp_listen / tcp_serve

tcp_connect(host, port, timeout: 5) → socket with send, send_line, recv(n), recv_line, peer, close
tcp_listen(port) → server with accept / close
tcp_serve(port) do |client| ... end — threaded accept loop, auto-close

stub(name, fn) / unstub(name)

Swap any global function (shell, http_get, ...) during tests; restore with unstub(name) or unstub()

Tooling

frankiec check — real static analysis

Undefined variables/functions and wrong argument counts → errors (exit 1)
Unused local variables → warnings; --strict fails on warnings (CI mode)
Resolves require/stitch/import targets; checks #{interpolation} too

Accurate cross-file tracebacks

CodeGen now emits a precise py→fk line map for every compiled file
Runtime errors in required files, imports and stitches point at the right file and the right line (previously: wrong line, main file only)

frankiec test --filter <name> --tag <tag>

Run a subset of test groups; skipped groups reported in the summary

frankiec stitch install <name> [--global] / frankiec stitch list

Installs stitches from the Frankie GitHub registry into ./stitches/ or ~/.frankie/stitches/ — stdlib HTTP only, zero dependencies

REPL upgrades

Bare expressions echo their value: fk> 2 + 3 → => 5
_ holds the last result
help <function> prints the signature + docs of any function

Fixes

raise as the last statement of a function, lambda or block no longer crashes codegen ("Unknown expression node: RaiseStmt")
Generated f-strings avoid nested quotes — compiled output now runs on Python 3.8–3.11, not just 3.12+
Integer#chr, String#hex, String#oct wired into codegen
TimeoutError added to the rescue type map and builtin error registry
Generic zero-arg method calls dispatch through a uniform mechanism, with a clear error message for missing fields/methods
Function-call blocks now respect the block's exact parameter count, and keyword arguments order correctly around blocks: parallel_map(urls, workers: 4) do |u| ... end

v1.16.2 (2026)

Patch: Multi-Line Call & Definition Support

Multi-line function calls now parse correctly Function calls with the closing ) on its own line — or with arguments spread across multiple lines — previously caused a parse error (Unexpected token in expression: NEWLINE). The parser now skips newlines after every opening (, after every , between arguments, and before the closing ) in all call sites (plain calls, method calls, safe-navigation calls).

# All of these now work:
result = send_mail(
  to:      "alice@example.com",
  subject: "Hello",
  body:    "Hi!"
)

config = deep_configure(
  host,
  port,
  opts
)

Multi-line function definitions also supported The same fix applies to def parameter lists — parameters can now span multiple lines:

def create_user(
  name,
  email,
  role: "viewer"
)
  # ...
end

v1.16.1 (2026)

Patch: Bug Fixes & Compatibility

Regex patterns must be strings, not /literals/ Frankie does not have a regex literal syntax. All patterns passed to scan, gsub, match_all, matches, etc. must be plain strings with double-escaped backslashes: "\\d+" not /\d+/. The lexer rejects / in expression position when followed by a pattern character — fixed all stdlib docs and examples to use the string form.

||= applies to simple variables only The nil-coalescing assignment operator (||=) works on plain variable names only. Subscript expressions such as hash["key"] ||= value are not supported and will cause a parse error. Use an explicit nil check instead:

if cache["user:1"] == nil
  cache["user:1"] = {name: "Alice"}
end

Tuple/parallel assignment not supported Multi-assignment syntax (a, b = b, a + b) causes a parse error. Use a temporary variable:

tmp = a + b
a   = b
b   = tmp

hmac_verify(token, secret) takes exactly 2 arguments The subject is embedded in the token by hmac_sign — you do not pass it separately to hmac_verify. Passing 3 arguments raises a runtime error.

.inspect is not a Frankie method Ruby's .inspect does not exist in Frankie. Use string interpolation ("#{value}") or puts value directly.

Stitch names use the frankie prefix throughout All built-in stitches are named with the full frankie prefix: frankieforms, frankietable, frankiecolor, frankiepager, frankieconfig, frankiestring. The abbreviated franki prefix is incorrect.

Theme: System Integration & Scripting Power

New Language Features

loop do...end — Infinite Loops

A clean infinite loop construct that exits only via break. Clearer intent than while true.

i = 0
loop do
  i += 1
  break if i >= 10
end
puts i   # 10

||= — Nil-Coalescing Assignment

Assign a value only if the variable is currently nil or false. Ruby-compatible semantics.

config ||= load_defaults()
cache  ||= {}

# Common pattern — memoized computation
result ||= expensive_query()

New Stdlib Functions

shell(cmd) — run any OS command and get structured output: {stdout, stderr, exit_code, ok}.

dotenv(path = ".env") — parse a .env file and load its variables into the process environment. Returns a hash of the loaded keys.

Hash#transform_values do |v| ... end — new hash with same keys, transformed values.

Hash#transform_keys do |k| ... end — new hash with transformed keys, same values.

Hash#deep_merge(other) — recursively merge nested hashes (unlike .merge / | which are shallow).

String#scan(pattern) — extract all regex matches from a string as a vector.

New Stitches

frankiemail — send email via SMTP with a simple keyword-argument API. Supports plain text, HTML, CC/BCC. Uses Python's smtplib — zero extra dependencies.

frankiecli — structured CLI argument parsing built on argv(). Returns flags, named options, positional args, and a first-argument subcommand. Pure Frankie, zero dependencies.

frankiecache — in-memory key/value cache with optional TTL. Ideal for caching database results, config, or rate-limit counters within a running script or server. Pure Frankie, zero dependencies.

v1.15.0 (2026)

Theme: Language Polish & Developer Ergonomics

New Language Features

Ternary Operator

Right-associative ternary expressions, valid in any expression position — assignments, string interpolation, function arguments, and vector literals.

label = score >= 90 ? "A" : score >= 70 ? "B" : "C"
msg   = n == 1 ? "one item" : "#{n} items"

Keyword-Style Default Parameters

Both = and : syntax are now accepted in def signatures. Mixed signatures work correctly.

def connect(host, port: 5432, ssl: true, timeout: 30)
  puts "#{host}:#{port} ssl=#{ssl}"
end

connect("localhost")                        # localhost:5432 ssl=true
connect("prod", port: 3306, ssl: false)     # prod:3306 ssl=false

Splat in Multi-Assign — *rest

Capture remaining elements with a splat variable in destructuring assignments.

a, b, *rest       = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]    # rest = [3, 4, 5]
first, *mid, last = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]    # mid  = [2, 3, 4]
head, *tail       = [10, 20]            # tail = []

const Keyword

Explicit constant declaration. Reassignment prints a runtime warning and preserves the original value. The existing ALL_CAPS auto-detection continues to work — const is additive.

const PI          = 3.14159
const MAX_RETRIES = 3
const BASE_URL    = env("BASE_URL", "http://localhost:3000")

Lambda Call Syntax — fn.(args) Everywhere

fn.(args) previously only worked inside web route middleware. Now valid in all contexts.

double = ->(x) { x * 2 }
puts double.(5)    # 10

transforms = [->(x) { x * 2 }, ->(x) { x + 10 }]
result = 5
transforms.each do |f|
  result = f.(result)
end
puts result    # 20

Stdlib

json_encode — preferred alias for json_dump. Accepts pretty: true for formatted output.

hmac_sign(subject, secret) / hmac_verify(token, secret) — previously internal (_fk_hmac_*), now public. Useful for signed tokens, webhooks, and tamper-proof values.

base64_encode(s) / base64_decode(s) — standard Base64 encode/decode, useful for HTTP Basic Auth headers.

String#format — named placeholder substitution: "Hello, {name}!".format({name: "Alice"}). Raises a descriptive error for missing keys.

.chars / .bytes — .chars returns a vector of individual characters (Unicode-aware); .bytes returns byte values.

Path Helpers — path_join, path_dirname, path_basename, path_extname, path_stem, path_absolute.

Date Arithmetic — date objects now support + / - with integers (days) and comparison operators (<, ==, etc.).

Vector#zip_with(other) do |x, y| — element-wise combination with a block. Without a block, returns pairs.

assert_not_nil(val, msg) / assert_in(val, collection, msg) — new test assertions.

FrankieRequest Query Helpers — req.query_int(key, default), req.query_float(key, default), req.query_bool(key, default) for typed query parameter access.

New Stitches

frankieauth — HTTP Basic Auth + Bearer token authentication. Zero dependencies — uses the built-in hmac_sign / hmac_verify and base64_decode. Functions: basic_auth_ok?, auth_token_create, auth_token_verify, bearer_required.

frankieratelimit — In-memory per-IP sliding-window rate limiting middleware. Zero dependencies. rate_limit_check(req, next_fn, max: 60, window: 60) and rate_limit_reset(ip, window: 60).

Tooling

frankiec check — parse without executing; exits 0 on success, 1 on error. Useful in CI (frankiec check src/*.fk).

frankiec new <name> — scaffold a complete project layout: main.fk, test.fk, lib/, stitches/, views/, public/, data/, .env.example, .gitignore, README.md.

frankiec watch (now official) — re-run a file on save. frankiec watch test.fk --test re-runs tests on every save.

v1.14.0 (2026)

Theme: Frankie for Real Web Apps

New Language Features

spawn { } — Background Blocks - Run any block in a background thread — returns immediately, response goes out while work continues - Works in web routes and standalone scripts - Spawned blocks receive a copy of variables at spawn time; mutations do not affect outer scope - Backed by Python's threading.Thread — zero dependencies

timeout(n) { } — Time-Bounded Execution - Kill any block that exceeds n seconds — raises TimeoutError - Works inside begin/rescue TimeoutError for graceful fallback - Essential for external HTTP calls, slow database queries, and any operation that can hang - Backed by Python's threading with a sentinel thread — zero dependencies

Hash Destructuring — {name, age} = user - Pull hash keys directly into local variables in one assignment - Missing keys evaluate to nil — no error - Works anywhere an assignment is valid: top level, inside functions, inside route handlers, inside loops - Bareword (symbol) keys only — matches the existing hash literal convention

Shape Pattern Matching — case user when {role: "admin"} - when clauses now accept hash literals — matches any hash containing at least those key/value pairs - Extra keys in the subject hash are ignored (subset match) - Works with records — record Point(x, y) is a hash, so when {x: 0} is valid - Mix shape and value when clauses in the same case

New Web Features

Async Routes — app.get_async / app.post_async etc. - Non-blocking route handlers — slow I/O in one handler does not hold up others - All five HTTP methods have async variants: get_async, post_async, put_async, delete_async, patch_async - Use await inside async blocks for non-blocking calls

Middleware Stack — app.use do |req, next_fn| - Chain middleware that wraps every request — auth, logging, rate-limiting, CORS - Each layer calls next_fn.(req) to pass control forward, or returns a response to short-circuit - Runs in registration order

Static File Serving — app.static(dir) / app.static(dir, prefix) - Serve a directory of static files with one line - Serves HTML, CSS, JS, images, fonts, JSON automatically - Optional URL prefix: app.static("./assets", "/static") - Directory listing disabled by default

New Stitches

frankietemplate - Mustache-compatible template engine — zero dependencies, pure .fk - {{ variable }} — HTML-escaped interpolation - {{{ variable }}} — raw / unescaped output - {{# section }} ... {{/ section}} — truthy blocks and vector iteration - {{^ inverted }} ... {{/ inverted}} — falsy / empty blocks - {{> partial_name }} — include from ./views/partials/<n>.html - {{! comment }} — stripped from output - render(template, data) — render a string - render_file(path, data) — load and render a file - partial(name) — load a partial by name

frankiecookie - HMAC-SHA256 signed cookies via Python's hmac + hashlib stdlib — zero dependencies - set_signed_cookie(resp, name, value, secret, opts) — write a tamper-proof cookie - get_signed_cookie(req, name, secret) — read and verify — returns nil if missing or tampered - delete_cookie(resp, name) — expire a cookie immediately - cookie_set?(req, name) — check if a cookie is present - Supports all cookie options: path, max_age, same_site, http_only, secure

Tooling

frankiec new — Scaffold Updated for Stitches - Generated project now includes a stitches/ folder with a README.md explaining the stitch convention - Generated project includes a views/partials/ folder for template projects - Generated README.md documents stitch "name" usage - Version string in main.fk banner updated to v1.14

Global Stitch Install — install.py - install.py now correctly copies all bundled stitches to ~/.frankie/stitches/ at install time - Installation output lists each stitch file copied - frankiecookie and frankietemplate included in the bundled set - python3 install.py --uninstall removes ~/.frankie/stitches/ and ~/.frankie/ if empty

v1.13.1 (2026)

Bug Fixes & Gap Closers

Parser / Compiler

Heredoc inside do...end blocks — Fixed lexer bug that discarded tokens after <<~DELIM on the same line. Heredocs now work anywhere a string expression is valid, including inside route and iterator blocks. The only documented workaround in the language is removed.
Vector .sum do |x| ... end — Block form was swallowed by the internal method map before block detection. Now correctly routes to _fk_sum_by for projected sums.
Vector .flat_map do |x| ... end — Multi-line block bodies now parse correctly.
Hash.each do |k, v| — Two-parameter block iteration confirmed and end-to-end tested. No workaround needed.

Standard Library

assert_approx_eq(actual, expected, delta, msg) — Float comparison assertion with configurable delta (default 0.001). Replaces assert_true(abs(a-b) < delta, ...) boilerplate.
run_tests() — Now a public stdlib function callable from any .fk file, not just frankiec test.
session(req, resp) — Cookie-backed session helper. Read, mutate, and write back with .save(). Single JSON cookie (_fk_session), zero server-side state.
String .ljust(n) / .rjust(n) / .center(n) — Promoted to documented stdlib status with examples.
String .start_with?(s) / .end_with?(s) — Documented as first-class predicates.
Hash .keys / .values / .has_key?(k) — All three consistently documented; .values and .has_key? reference gaps closed.

Stitches

frankiestring v2 — Rewritten with a clean API. Old lfill/rfill replaced by pad_left(str, n, char), pad_right(str, n, char), truncate(str, n, suffix), slugify(str), word_wrap(str, width), indent_lines(str, n).

Tooling

frankiec fmt — symbol key round-trip — Symbol keys (host: "x") are preserved after formatting; {host: "val"} no longer becomes {"host": "val"}.
frankiec fmt — blank line preservation — Intentional blank lines between statement groups inside function bodies are now preserved.
frankiec fmt — multi-line threshold — Hashes and vectors whose inline form exceeds 60 characters auto-expand to one element per line.
frankiec fmt — idempotency — Running fmt --write twice now produces identical output. Safe for pre-commit hooks and CI.

REPL

Multi-line REPL input — Fixed _is_incomplete edge cases: standalone do |x| lines now correctly hold the ... prompt open; comment lines are skipped during depth counting.

v1.13.0 (2026)

New Features

Language — stitch "name" keyword - New keyword for loading third-party Frankie packages by name - Resolution order: ./stitches/<n>.fk (project-local) → ~/.frankie/stitches/<n>.fk (user-global) - Friendly error when not found: tells you exactly where to put the file - Each stitch is loaded at most once — safe to call multiple times - Uses the same underlying require machinery — stitch files are plain .fk files - Establishes a clear convention: lib/ = your code, stitches/ = third-party packages

Language — ? in user-defined function names - def even?(n) and def palindrome?(s) now work correctly - ? is compiled to _q in generated Python — transparent to the programmer - Applies to function definitions, calls, and assignments

Stitch — frankieforms - Form field validation returning a Hash of {field: error_message} pairs - Rules: required, min_length, max_length, email, min_value, max_value, numeric, alpha, matches_pattern - validate(form, rules) → error hash · valid?(form, rules) → boolean

Stitch — frankietable - ASCII table rendering from a vector of hashes - table(rows) — all columns · table(rows, cols) — specific columns in given order - Column widths auto-sized to content

Stitch — frankiecolor - ANSI color and style helpers for terminal output - Color functions: red, green, yellow, blue, cyan, magenta, white, black - Style functions: bold, dim, italic, underline, inverse - Semantic helpers: success, error, warn, info - colorize(str, color) — generic · strip_color(str) — remove ANSI codes

Stitch — frankiepager - Pagination math for web apps and CLI tools - paginate(opts) → full pager hash with page, total_pages, from, to, has_prev, has_next, prev_page, next_page - page_slice(items, page, per_page) — slice a vector to the current page - page_links(pager, url_template) — navigation link vector

Stitch — frankieconfig - Layered configuration loading: defaults → JSON file → environment variables → overrides - Type coercion from env var strings to match default types (Integer, Float, Boolean) - load_config(opts) · config_get(config, key, fallback)

v1.12.0 (2026)

New Features

Standard Library — String .gsub with Block - "hello".gsub("[aeiou]") do |m| m.upcase end → "hEllO" - Block form transforms each match; the block receives the matched substring and returns the replacement - The fixed-string form gsub(pattern, replacement) continues to work unchanged - Uses re.sub with a callable internally — no new dependencies

Standard Library — Hash .map_hash do |k, v| - {a: 1, b: 2}.map_hash do |k, v| [k, v * 2] end → {a: 2, b: 4} - Transforms a hash into a new hash in one idiomatic step - Block must return a two-element vector [new_key, new_value]; any other return raises a clear runtime error - Fills the gap between .map (returns vector of pairs) and a true hash transform

Standard Library — round(x, n) - round(3.14159, 2) → 3.14 - Rounds to n decimal places; n defaults to 0 - Available as a top-level function alongside floor and ceil - Wired to Python's built-in round() — no surprises on banker's rounding edge cases

Standard Library — Vector .product(other) - [1,2].product([3,4]) → [[1,3],[1,4],[2,3],[2,4]] - Cartesian product — every combination of elements from two vectors - Pure nested loop, zero dependencies - Natural companion to .zip and .zip_with — completes the combinatorics trio

Standard Library — String .chars (promoted) - .chars was already in the method map but undocumented - Now a first-class documented method alongside .bytes and .lines - Chains naturally into iterators: "hello".chars.select do |c| c != "l" end

Standard Library — Vector .each_with_object with Hash Accumulator (documented) - Hash accumulators already worked implicitly; now explicitly documented and tested - [1,2,3].each_with_object({}) do |x, h| h[x] = x * x end → {1: 1, 2: 4, 3: 9}

Tooling — assert_match and assert_nil - assert_match(value, pattern, msg) — checks a regex match; pattern can be a regex or string - assert_nil(value, msg) — checks for nil; cleaner than assert_eq(x, nil) - Both available in frankiec test with the same output style as existing assertions

Tooling — frankiec watch <file.fk> - Polls file mtime and re-runs automatically on every save - frankiec watch test.fk --test runs in test mode - Zero dependencies — uses os.stat and time.sleep - Ctrl-C to stop; gracefully ignores exit() calls in watched files

Tooling — frankiec repl --no-banner - Skips the ASCII art and version header - Makes the REPL usable piped into other tools or embedded in scripts

Bug Fixes & Improvements

Runtime — FileNotFoundError from File I/O - file_read and file_lines previously raised RuntimeError, silently defeating rescue FileNotFoundError - Now raise a genuine FileNotFoundError with a clean message — no [Frankie] prefix noise - file_copy and file_rename also raise FileNotFoundError when the source is missing - file_delete and file_exists unchanged — returning false for missing files is correct for those - rescue FileNotFoundError e now works as expected for all file I/O

Runtime — Friendlier Error Messages - TypeError now reads as "Type mismatch — can't use '+' with Integer and String" instead of the raw Python message - IndexError now reads as "Index out of bounds — vector index does not exist" instead of "list index out of range" - FileNotFoundError strips the raw Python [Errno 2] No such file or directory: prefix - The friendly dict in frankiec.py is now backed by three focused helper functions for easier future extension

v1.11.0 (2026)

New Features

Language — Implicit Return - The last expression in a function body is now automatically returned — return is optional - Early return statements are still fully supported for mid-function exits - Applies to all function bodies including nested functions - Only expressions trigger implicit return; assignments, loops, and puts at the end still return nil - Zero breaking change risk: all existing programs using explicit return continue to work identically

Language — Inline if Expression - x = if cond then a else b end — if is now usable as an expression, not just a statement - then keyword is optional; a newline after the condition also works - elsif clauses are supported: if a then x elsif b then y else z end - Missing else clause evaluates to nil - New THEN token type added to the lexer; new IfExpr AST node added - Avoids introducing a ?: ternary operator that clashes with Frankie's readable style

Standard Library — String .replace(old, new) - "hello world".replace("world", "Frankie") → "hello Frankie" - Replaces the first occurrence — an alias for sub() - The method name new users always reach for before remembering sub/gsub - sub(), gsub() continue to work as before

Standard Library — String .format(hash) - "Hello, {name}!".format({name: "Alice"}) — named {key} placeholder replacement - Method form of the existing template() function - Uses {key} syntax (vs template()'s {{key}} syntax) - Runtime dispatches on argument type: dict → string format; non-dict → datetime format

Standard Library — .zip_with do |a, b| - [1,2,3].zip_with([10,20,30]) do |a, b| a + b end → [11, 22, 33] - Pair-wise transform two vectors in a single pass - Completes the R-style vector pipeline alongside .zip, .map, .select - Stops at the shorter vector, matching .zip behaviour

Tooling — frankiec check Boxed Error Output - Parse and lex errors from frankiec check now use the same boxed format as runtime errors - Includes file path, line number, and source context with ──▶ pointer - Essential for editor integration — output is now machine-parseable and visually consistent - Exit codes unchanged: 0 = clean, 1 = error

Tooling — REPL Multi-line History Recall - ↑ now recalls a complete def...end block as a single history entry - Previously, each line of a multi-line block was stored separately - Implementation: per-line readline entries are removed and replaced with a single joined entry - History file (~/.frankie_history) updated on block submission, not just on exit - Gracefully degrades on readline bindings that don't support remove_history_item

Tooling — frankiec fmt Heredoc Support - Heredoc string bodies are now preserved verbatim during formatting - Multiline string literals are re-emitted as <<~HEREDOC blocks - Fixes a v1.10 regression where heredoc content could be mangled by the formatter

Documentation

New docs/13_v111_features.md with full feature reference and examples
Multiple return values via destructuring documented as an official pattern
String .delete(chars) promoted from hidden stdlib to documented method

v1.10.0 (2026)

New Features

Language — String & Vector * Repetition - "ha" * 3 → "hahaha" — string repetition - [0] * 5 → [0, 0, 0, 0, 0] — vector fill - [1, 2] * 3 → [1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2] — pattern repeat - Integer on either side works: 3 * "hi" → "hihihi" - Implemented in _fk_arith — zero new syntax

Language — Heredoc <<~TEXT - <<~DELIM ... DELIM multiline string with automatic indent-stripping - <<DELIM variant (no strip) also supported - Full #{} interpolation inside heredoc bodies - Pure lexer change — no new tokens or AST nodes - The codegen gen_string rewritten to use repr() + concatenation for multiline interpolated strings, eliminating triple-quote/backslash edge cases entirely

Language — Named Rescue Without Variable - rescue TypeError is now valid without a binding variable - rescue TypeError e still works when the message is needed - Parser fix: variable binding is now truly optional after a typed rescue

Standard Library — times(n) do |i| standalone - times(n) do |i| ... end functional form added alongside n.times do - times(n) with no block returns [0..n-1] as a list - FuncCall AST node gains an optional block field; parser attaches trailing do...end blocks to function calls; codegen emits a for loop for times

Standard Library — flatten(depth) - .flatten with no argument now does full deep flatten (breaking change from v1.9's one-level-only behaviour) - .flatten(n) flattens exactly n levels; .flatten(0) is a no-op - Backed by new _fk_flatten_deep(iterable, depth) in stdlib

Standard Library — map_with_index - .map_with_index do |x, i| ... end — index available in map block - Single-expression blocks compile to a list comprehension; multi-statement blocks use a helper function

Standard Library — pp(value) pretty-print - Indented multiline output for hashes, vectors, and records - Records printed as RecordName(\n field: value,\n ...) - Flat vectors printed on one line; nested structures indented recursively

Standard Library — encode / decode - "hello".encode → [104, 101, 108, 108, 111] (UTF-8 bytes as vector) - "hello".encode("ascii") — explicit encoding - [104, 105].decode → "hi" - [104, 105].decode("utf-8") — explicit encoding

Runtime — Exit Code Propagation - exit(42) in Frankie code now propagates the exact code to the shell - frankiec run catches SystemExit and calls sys.exit(e.code) instead of re-raising

CLI — --help Flag - frankiec --help prints the full usage docstring - frankiec <cmd> --help prints a short description for that specific command - All commands covered: run, repl, test, fmt, docs, build, check, new, version

Bug Fixes

gen_string multiline interpolation: single-line f-strings were emitted with literal embedded newlines (invalid Python syntax). Fixed by using repr() + string concatenation for all multiline interpolated strings.
flatten semantics changed to full-deep by default; use .flatten(1) for the old one-level behaviour.

v1.9.0 (2026)

New Features

Language — Record Types (record) - record Point(x, y) defines a lightweight named data object - Constructor function generated automatically: p = Point(3, 4) - Prints as Point(x: 3, y: 4) — clean, readable output - Records are hashes under the hood — all hash methods, iterators, dig, |, and .merge work on them - New lexer token RECORD, new AST node RecordDef, new gen_record_def in codegen - _fk_to_str updated to detect __type__ and display record notation

record Employee(name, dept, salary)
emp = Employee("Alice", "Engineering", 95000)
puts emp               # Employee(name: Alice, dept: Engineering, salary: 95000)
puts emp["dept"]       # Engineering
by_dept = employees.group_by do |e| e["dept"] end

Standard Library — hash.dig(key, ...) - Safe nested access: returns nil at the first missing key, never crashes - Works on hashes (string/symbol keys) and vectors (integer indices) - Chains correctly with &. for nil-safe navigation

config = {db: {host: "localhost", pool: {max: 10}}}
puts config.dig("db", "pool", "max")   # 10
puts config.dig("db", "missing")       # nil  (no crash)

Standard Library — Standalone zip(*vecs) - zip(a, b) function form alongside the existing .zip method - Accepts two or more vectors; stops at the shortest - Consistent with Frankie's R-inspired functional style

zip(["Alice", "Bob"], [95, 87])   # [["Alice", 95], ["Bob", 87]]

Tooling — frankiec fmt (Auto-Formatter) - New command: frankiec fmt <file.fk> — print canonically formatted source - --write flag: reformat in-place - --check flag: exit 1 if not already formatted (CI-friendly) - Implemented in frankie_fmt.py — walks the AST, zero new dependencies - Canonical style: 2-space indent, single-expr blocks inlined, blank line after top-level def

Tooling — frankiec docs (Documentation Generator) - New command: frankiec docs <file.fk> — extract ## doc-comments to Markdown - --output <file.md> flag: write to file instead of stdout - Supports @param, @return, @example tags - Works on directories: frankiec docs lib/ generates docs for every .fk file - Implemented in frankie_docs.py — pure Python, zero new dependencies

REPL — readline, Tab Completion, History Persistence - Arrow key navigation (↑/↓) and Ctrl+R reverse-search via Python's built-in readline - Tab completion for Frankie keywords, stdlib functions, and common method names - History saved to ~/.frankie_history on exit; restored at next startup (max 1000 entries) - .env auto-loaded from the current working directory at REPL startup

Runtime — .env Auto-Loader - frankiec run and frankiec repl automatically load .env from the current directory - Keys already set in the shell environment take precedence - Values accessible via the existing env(key, default) stdlib function - No crash if .env is absent

Bug Fixes

record added as a reserved keyword — programs that used record as a variable name must rename it (the existing .fk examples in the repo have been updated)
scaffold.py version string updated from v1.3 to v1.9

v1.8.0 (2026)

New Features

Language — Lambda / Anonymous Functions (->) - Store functions as first-class values: double = ->(x) { x * 2 } - Call with .call(args): double.call(5) → 10 - Single-expression bodies use brace syntax: ->(x) { x * 2 } - Multi-statement bodies use do...end: ->(x) do ... end - Default parameters are supported: ->(x, y = 1) { x + y } - Lambdas can be stored in variables, vectors, and hashes - Lambdas can be passed to functions as arguments (higher-order functions) - Lambdas can be returned from functions - New token: ARROW (->) - New AST node: LambdaLiteral

double = ->(x) { x * 2 }
add    = ->(a, b) { a + b }
puts double.call(7)      # 14
puts add.call(3, 4)      # 7

def apply(fn, val)
  return fn.call(val)
end
puts apply(double, 9)    # 18

Language — Hash Merge Operator | - h1 | h2 merges two hashes; right-hand keys win on conflict - Returns a new hash — neither operand is modified - Chains naturally: a | b | c - Complements the existing .merge(other) method

defaults = {color: "blue", size: "medium"}
overrides = {color: "red"}
puts defaults | overrides   # {color: red, size: medium}

Standard Library — group_by - vector.group_by do |x| key end buckets elements by block return value - Returns a hash whose values are arrays of matching elements, in original order - Pairs naturally with .tally, .sort_by, .each, and the new | operator

words = ["ant", "ape", "bear", "bee", "cat"]
puts words.group_by do |w| w[0] end
# {"a" => ["ant", "ape"], "b" => ["bear", "bee"], "c" => ["cat"]}

Standard Library — each_slice and each_cons - vector.each_slice(n) — iterate non-overlapping chunks of size n - vector.each_cons(n) — iterate all consecutive windows of size n (sliding window) - Both accept an optional do |var| ... end block; without a block, return a vector of slices/windows - Mirrors Ruby's API; natural fit for data-processing, batch operations, and rolling statistics

[1,2,3,4,5,6].each_slice(2) do |s|
  puts s     # [1,2]  [3,4]  [5,6]
end

[10, 13, 11, 15].each_cons(2) do |w|
  puts w[1] - w[0]    # 3  -2  4
end

Bug Fixes

_block_to_lambda — blocks whose body ends with a control-flow expression (if, case, unless) now correctly capture the result value instead of raising a CodeGenError. Affects select, reject, sort_by, min_by, max_by, sum_by, find, flat_map, and the new group_by.

v1.7.1 (2025)

Bug Fixes

N.times do — def _gen_times method definition was accidentally dropped from compiler/codegen.py during v1.7 development, causing an AttributeError at runtime. The method body was present but the def header was missing.
test_v17.fk — example test file used def() anonymous function syntax inside assert_raises_typed which does not exist in Frankie yet. Rewritten to use begin/rescue blocks instead.

v1.7.0 (2025)

New Features

Language — Nil Safety Operator &. - x&.method — call .method on x, returning nil if x is nil (no crash) - x&.method(args) — nil-safe method call with arguments - x&.property — nil-safe property / zero-arg attribute access - Chains naturally: a&.b&.c — short-circuits at the first nil - Works with any value: strings, hashes, vectors, custom objects - No language keywords added — &. is a single new operator token

user = {name: "Alice"}
missing = nil

puts user["name"]&.upcase   # ALICE
puts missing&.upcase        # nil  (no crash)
puts missing&.upcase&.reverse  # nil  (chain short-circuits)

Standard Library — template(str, hash) - Replace {{key}} placeholders in a string with values from a hash - Clean alternative to sprintf / #{} when keys are dynamic or templates are stored externally - Raises KeyError if a placeholder key is missing from the hash

msg = template("Hello, {{name}}! Age: {{age}}.", {name: "Alice", age: 30})
puts msg   # Hello, Alice! Age: 30.

Standard Library — File System Operations - file_rename(src, dst) — rename or move a file - file_copy(src, dst) — copy a file (preserving metadata); returns dst - file_mkdir(path) — create a directory; creates intermediate dirs by default (like mkdir -p) - file_mkdir(path, false) — create a single directory only (no parents) - dir_exists(path) — return true if path is an existing directory - dir_list(path) — return a sorted vector of filenames in a directory (default: ".") - All use Python's built-in os / shutil — zero external dependencies

file_mkdir("/tmp/myapp/data")
puts dir_exists("/tmp/myapp/data")     # true

file_write("/tmp/myapp/data/a.txt", "hello")
file_copy("/tmp/myapp/data/a.txt", "/tmp/myapp/data/b.txt")
file_rename("/tmp/myapp/data/b.txt", "/tmp/myapp/data/c.txt")

puts dir_list("/tmp/myapp/data")       # [a.txt, c.txt]

Standard Library — assert_raises_typed(fn, type, msg) - Extends the test runner to assert that a specific error type was raised - type can be a string ("ZeroDivisionError") or a Python exception class - Fails with a clear message if no error is raised, or if the wrong type is raised - Supported type names mirror typed rescue: RuntimeError, TypeError, ValueError, ZeroDivisionError, IndexError, KeyError, IOError, FileNotFoundError, OverflowError, NameError, AttributeError, Exception / Error

assert_raises_typed(def()
  x = 1 // 0
end, "ZeroDivisionError", "division by zero raises correctly")

assert_raises_typed(def()
  file_read("/no/such/file.txt")
end, "RuntimeError", "missing file raises RuntimeError")

Bug Fixes

&. operator correctly short-circuits chains — once a nil is encountered, remaining method calls in the chain are skipped without raising errors

v1.6.0 (2025)

New Features

Language — Compound Assignment Operators - += — add and assign: x += 5 - -= — subtract and assign: x -= 3 - *= — multiply and assign: x *= 2 - /= — divide and assign (float): x /= 4 - //= — integer-divide and assign (Fortran): x //= 3 - **= — exponentiate and assign (Fortran): x **= 2 - %= — modulo and assign: x %= 7 - All operators also work on vector elements: v[i] += 1

Language — Typed Rescue Clauses - rescue TypeError e — catch only TypeError errors - rescue ZeroDivisionError e — catch only division by zero - Multiple rescue clauses on one begin...end block, checked in order - Full list of supported types: RuntimeError, TypeError, ValueError, ZeroDivisionError, IndexError, KeyError, IOError, FileNotFoundError, OverflowError, NameError, AttributeError, StopIteration, Exception / Error (catch-all aliases) - Untyped rescue e remains valid and catches everything

Standard Library — .find / .detect - .find do |x| ... end — return the first element for which the block is true, or nil - .detect do |x| ... end — alias for .find - Works on any vector, including vectors of hashes - Chains naturally with .select, .map, .sort_by, etc.

Tooling — frankiec test - frankiec test — run test.fk in the current directory - frankiec test <file.fk> — run a named test file - Built-in assertions (no imports needed): - assert_true(cond, msg) — pass if condition is truthy - assert_eq(actual, expected, msg) — pass if values are equal - assert_neq(actual, expected, msg) — pass if values differ - assert_raises(fn, msg) — pass if calling fn raises any error - Live ✓ / ✗ output per assertion - Summary line with pass count, fail count, and elapsed time - Exits with code 1 if any assertion fails (CI-friendly)

Bug Fixes

_fk_test_suite singleton now uses a fresh isolated copy per frankiec test run, preventing state leakage between multiple test invocations in the same process

v1.5.0 (2025)

New Features

Language — Loop Control - next — skip to the next iteration (like continue in other languages); supports postfix next if cond - break — exit a loop early; supports postfix break if cond - break value — exit a loop and store a result in _fk_break_val; supports postfix form

Language — Constants - UPPER_CASE = value — UPPER_SNAKE_CASE identifiers are treated as constants - Reassignment prints a warning and preserves the original value - Works with any type: integers, floats, strings, vectors, hashes

Standard Library — Randomness - random() — random Float in [0.0, 1.0) - rand(n) — random Integer in [0, n) - rand_int(a, b) — random Integer in [a, b] (both inclusive) - rand_float(a, b) — random Float in [a, b) - shuffle(vec) — return a shuffled copy of a vector - sample(vec, n) — return n randomly chosen elements (no repeats) - rand_seed(n) — seed the RNG for reproducible results

Standard Library — Sorting - .sort_by do |x| key end — sort a vector by any computed key - .min_by do |x| key end — element with the smallest key - .max_by do |x| key end — element with the largest key - .sum_by do |x| val end — sum the values the block returns

Standard Library — Other - sleep(n) — pause execution for n seconds (float supported) - unzip(vec) — inverse of zip: vector of pairs → vector of columns - format(fmt, ...) — alias for sprintf

Bug Fixes

Block parameters named p (e.g. do |p|) now parse correctly — p was always tokenised as the debug-print keyword, preventing it from being used as a loop variable
p[...] and p.method now correctly treated as variable access rather than a debug-print call
break if cond and next if cond (postfix forms) parse without errors

v1.4.0 (2025)

New Features

Web Server (built-in http.server — zero deps) - web_app() — create a new Frankie web application - app.get(path) do |req| end — register a GET route - app.post(path) do |req| end — register a POST route - app.put(path) do |req| end — register a PUT route - app.delete(path) do |req| end — register a DELETE route - app.patch(path) do |req| end — register a PATCH route - app.before do |req| end — before-filter (runs before every matched route) - app.after do |req, res| end — after-filter (runs after every matched route) - app.not_found do |req| end — custom 404 handler - app.run(port) / app.run(port, host) — start the server (blocking, multi-threaded) - Path parameters with :name segments: "/users/:id" → req.params["id"] - Query string access: req.query["page"] - JSON body parsing: req.json — returns parsed hash/vector or nil - Form body parsing: req.form — returns decoded hash - response(body, status, headers) — plain-text response - html_response(body, status) — HTML response - json_response(data, status) — JSON response (auto-serializes hashes and vectors) - redirect(location, status) — redirect response (default 302) - halt(status, body) — error response shortcut - Returning a plain string from a handler auto-wraps as 200 text/plain - Returning a hash or vector auto-wraps as 200 application/json - Full request object: .method, .path, .params, .query, .headers, .body, .json, .form - See docs/09_web.md and examples/webapp.fk for full reference and demo

Bug Fixes

raise expr if cond (postfix if on raise) now parsed correctly — was leaving the if clause unconsumed, causing rescue to be seen as an unexpected token in begin/rescue blocks
data |> sum |> puts — puts and print now accepted as bare pipe targets (previously raised an unexpected token error)

v1.3.0 (2025)

New Features

Language - Default parameter values: def greet(name, msg="Hello", punct="!") - Keyword-named parameters (e.g. times, each) now usable as variable/param names - Triple-quoted multi-line strings: """...""" and '''...''' with interpolation

JSON (built-in json module — zero deps) - json_parse(str) — parse JSON string → Frankie value - json_dump(obj, pretty) — serialize to JSON string - json_read(path) — read and parse JSON file - json_write(path, obj, pretty) — serialize and write JSON file

CSV (built-in csv module — zero deps) - csv_parse(text, headers) — parse CSV text → vector of hashes - csv_dump(data, headers) — serialize vector of hashes → CSV string - csv_read(path, headers) — read and parse CSV file - csv_write(path, data, headers) — write CSV file

DateTime (built-in datetime module — zero deps) - now() — current date and time - today() — today's date at midnight - date_from(year, month, day, hour, minute, second) — construct a date - date_parse(str, fmt) — parse a date string (default fmt: %Y-%m-%d) - .year, .month, .day, .hour, .minute, .second — accessors - .format(fmt) — format with strftime directives - .add_days(n), .add_hours(n), .add_minutes(n) — arithmetic - .diff_days(other), .diff_seconds(other) — differences - .weekday(), .weekday_name() — day of week - .is_before(other), .is_after(other) — comparison - .timestamp() — Unix timestamp

HTTP (built-in urllib — zero deps) - http_get(url, headers) — GET request - http_post(url, data, headers) — POST request (auto JSON-encodes dicts) - http_put(url, data, headers) — PUT request - http_delete(url, headers) — DELETE request - Response: .status, .body, .headers, .json(), .ok() - url_encode(hash) — encode params as query string - url_decode(str) — decode query string → hash

Tooling - frankiec new <project> — scaffold a new project with main.fk, test.fk, lib/, data/, README.md, .gitignore - Better error messages — compile and runtime errors now show a boxed display with source context and line pointer (──▶) - Syntax highlighting for VS Code (.tmLanguage.json + package.json + language-configuration.json) - Syntax highlighting for Vim/Neovim (frankie.vim) - Syntax highlighting for Sublime Text / TextMate (frankie.tmLanguage.json) - All editor files in editors/

Bug Fixes

Fixed print output disappearing when running from a different working directory
times, each, map keywords can now be used as parameter and variable names
Template placeholders in frankiec new use .replace() to avoid str.format() key conflicts

v1.2.0 (2025)

New Features

Database Access (SQLite) - db_open(path) — open or create a SQLite database; ":memory:" for in-memory - db.exec(sql, params) — run DDL/DML with ? placeholders; returns row count - db.query(sql, params) — SELECT → vector of hashes keyed by column name - db.query_one(sql, params) — SELECT → first row as hash or nil - db.insert(table, hash) — insert a hash of column→value; returns new row id - db.insert_many(table, rows) — bulk insert a vector of hashes - db.find_all(table) — all rows as vector of hashes - db.find(table, where) — filtered rows (where is a hash, conditions ANDed) - db.find_one(table, where) — first matching row or nil - db.update(table, data, where) — update matching rows; returns count - db.delete(table, where) — delete matching rows; returns count - db.count(table) / db.count(table, where) — row counts - db.last_id — rowid of last INSERT - db.tables — list of table names in the database - db.columns(table) — column info as vector of hashes - db.transaction do...end — atomic block; rolls back on any error - db.begin / db.commit / db.rollback — explicit transaction control - db.close — close the connection - Zero external dependencies — uses Python's built-in sqlite3

Multi-line Strings - Triple-quoted strings """...""" and '''...''' spanning multiple lines - String interpolation #{} works inside triple-double-quoted strings - Perfect for embedding multi-line SQL, templates, or long text

Bug Fixes

isinstance(obj, FrankieDB) cross-namespace failure — fixed with duck typing (hasattr checks instead) so DB objects work correctly inside exec() globals
db.delete(table, where) was intercepted by string/hash delete handler — now correctly dispatches based on argument count (2 args = DB call)
.count("sub") on a DB object was routing to _fk_str_count — fixed via _fk_count_dispatch with duck typing
Transaction BEGIN/COMMIT/ROLLBACK now uses explicit isolation_level=None with an _in_tx flag for correct per-operation autocommit and block rollback

v1.1.0 (2025)

New Features

Control Flow - case/when/else/end — pattern matching on values or conditions - Bare case (no subject) — uses truthy when-clauses

Destructuring Assignment - a, b, c = [1, 2, 3] — unpack vector into named variables - Pads with nil if vector is shorter than target count

String Methods (new) - .chars — vector of individual characters - .bytes — vector of byte values - .lines — vector of lines - .chomp — remove trailing newline - .chop — remove last character - .count("sub") — count substring occurrences - .center(w, pad) — center in field - .ljust(w, pad) — left-justify in field - .rjust(w, pad) — right-justify in field - .squeeze — collapse consecutive duplicates - .tr(from, to) — translate characters - .each_char do |c| — iterate over characters - .each_line do |l| — iterate over lines - .lstrip / .rstrip — directional whitespace trim

REPL (Interactive Mode) - frankiec repl — starts the interactive REPL - frankiec with no arguments also launches the REPL - Multi-line block detection — automatically waits for end - vars — show all user-defined variables and functions - clear — reset the session - load <file.fk> — load a file into the current session - help — show available commands - Persistent state across expressions in a session

Bug Fixes

do...while body was accidentally consuming the while keyword
Postfix if/unless now works after puts (not just expressions)
matches() and all regex functions had flipped argument order — fixed to (string, pattern)
s[-5..-1] negative range ends now parse as (-5)..(-1) correctly
[x, x * 2] vector literal with multiplication was mis-parsed as destructuring — fixed with backtracking
gen_pipe method lost its def header during code insertion — restored
count method now correctly dispatches: .count("sub") for strings, .count do for filtering, .count for length

Compiler Version

Version header in generated files updated to v1.1

v1.0.0 (2025)

Initial Release

Core language - 7 data types: Integer, Float, String, Boolean, Nil, Vector, Hash - Full arithmetic: +, -, *, /, //, %, ** - String interpolation with #{} - Ranges: 1..10 (inclusive), 1...10 (exclusive) - Conditionals: if/elsif/else/end, unless/end - Postfix if/unless - Loops: while, until, do...while, for...in - Iterators: .times, .each, .each_with_index, .map - Functions with def...end and explicit return - Named arguments: func(x, sep: "-") - Pipe operator |> - Destructuring (v1.1)

Collections - Vectors with R-style vectorized arithmetic - Hashes with symbol and integer keys, nil-safe access - Full method suites for both types

Standard Library - Math: sqrt, abs, floor, ceil, min, max - Statistics: sum, mean, median, stdev, variance - Sequences: seq, linspace, rep, clamp - String formatting: sprintf, paste - Regex: matches, match, match_all, sub, gsub, =~, regex() - File I/O: file_read, file_write, file_append, file_lines, file_exists, file_delete - Type conversion: to_int, to_float, to_str - Type checking: is_integer, is_float, is_string, is_vector, is_nil, is_bool - System: exit, argv, env

Error handling - begin/rescue/ensure/end - raise

Multi-file - require "filename" — load another .fk file once

Tooling - frankiec run — run a program - frankiec build — compile to Python source - frankiec check — syntax check - frankiec version - python3 install.py — install frankiec to frankie/bin/

Changelog

v1.21.0 (2026) — "The Book Edition" 🧊

Image sprites, WebAudio synth, and a language freeze

New Stdlib

Fixes

🧊 Language Freeze

Compatibility notes

v1.20.1 (2026)

Patch: Arrow keys, frankiec examples, Homebrew

v1.20.0 (2026)

Theme: "It's Alive… and Playing" — two game engines, one shared API

New Language Features

Fixes

v1.19.0 (2026)

Theme: "Under the microscope" — types, a real debugger, coverage

New Language Features

Tooling

New Stdlib

Showcase Projects

Fixes

v1.18.0 (2026)

Theme: "From projects to products" — edit, ship, connect, debug

Tooling

New Language Features

Fixes

v1.17.0 (2026)

Theme: "Programs that grow" — namespacing, real checking, typed errors

New Language Features

New Stdlib

Tooling

Fixes

v1.16.2 (2026)

Patch: Multi-Line Call & Definition Support

v1.16.1 (2026)

Patch: Bug Fixes & Compatibility

Theme: System Integration & Scripting Power

New Language Features

New Stdlib Functions

New Stitches

v1.15.0 (2026)

Theme: Language Polish & Developer Ergonomics

New Language Features

Stdlib

New Stitches

Tooling

v1.14.0 (2026)

Theme: Frankie for Real Web Apps

New Language Features

New Web Features

New Stitches

Tooling

v1.13.1 (2026)

Bug Fixes & Gap Closers

v1.13.0 (2026)

New Features

v1.12.0 (2026)

New Features

Bug Fixes & Improvements

v1.11.0 (2026)

New Features

Documentation

v1.10.0 (2026)

New Features

Bug Fixes

v1.9.0 (2026)

New Features

Bug Fixes

v1.8.0 (2026)

New Features

Bug Fixes

v1.7.1 (2025)

Bug Fixes

v1.7.0 (2025)

New Features

Bug Fixes

v1.6.0 (2025)

New Features

Bug Fixes

v1.5.0 (2025)

New Features

Patch: Arrow keys, `frankiec examples`, Homebrew