Are there any plans to provide a Kotlin approach t...

# language-evolution

[eygraber]

Are there any plans to provide a Kotlin approach to Vector/SIMD once Valhalla Panama is released/finalized/stabilized?

[ephemient]

for what it's worth, the JDK vector proposal (https://openjdk.org/jeps/338 https://openjdk.org/jeps/414 https://openjdk.org/jeps/417 https://openjdk.org/jeps/426 https://openjdk.org/jeps/438 https://openjdk.org/jeps/448 https://openjdk.org/jeps/460 https://openjdk.org/jeps/469 https://openjdk.org/jeps/489 and more in the future) is also dependent on Valhalla and FFM

[eygraber]

Ah darn I meant to write Panama

[ephemient]

FFM being a part of Project Panama

[ephemient]

but what part of Panama do you expect to be relevant? FFM is already out of preview

[ephemient]

https://openjdk.org/jeps/454

[eygraber]

Mostly Vector

[ephemient]

well then as I linked above, that's still waiting on Valhalla

[eygraber]

Right, so that goes back to my question. Unless you're saying that there are no plans?

[ephemient]

I have no inside knowledge of JB/Kotlin plans, but it's publicly stated on the OpenJDK project that Vector will mention in Incubator at least until the required Valhalla make it to Preview and they can adapt the API to it

[mikhail.zarechenskiy]

Yes, we're going to provide a Kotlin approach to the Vector API. There are many things we can do with it just by looking at the main examples: starting with straightforward operator overloading and special scope functions, and ending with more comprehensive code generation in common scenarios, thanks to decades of research on the topic of scalar-to-vector-based transformations

[eygraber]

Nice! Will that include APIs that can be used on older targets that encourage auto vectorization or will this only be for newer targets?

[mikhail.zarechenskiy]

Some parts will work only for newer targets, as they will rely on value object scalarization optimization (to create vectors without "boxing", which is important if you do this in a loop), and this optimization will come only with value classes. As for the rest, it's not clear yet