Files
ww/cmd/w6c/cgen.c
Hojun-Cho f4efaac144 wcc: nullable pointer folding for (*T | void)
A tagged union with exactly one `*T` variant and one `void` variant
collapses to a single 8-byte pointer slot, where the null bit
pattern is the void variant and any non-null is the *T variant.
Mirrors Hare's `(*T | null)` ABI optimisation.

Detected in resolve_type when the post-flatten variant list has
exactly two entries of the right shape; Type.nullable = 1 and
size = 8. Codegen branches every tagged-handling site on the flag:

- match: discriminator = pointer-vs-zero, not slot+0 tag word.
  Binding for the *T case copies the same word (the pointer itself)
  rather than slot+8.
- is/as: same ptr-vs-zero discriminator.
- ?: null = error (propagate AX=0 to caller's matching null
  encoding); non-null = success (AX is already the pointer).
- !: null aborts; non-null falls through with AX = pointer.
- let-init / return: spill or set just AX (no tag/value pair).
- call-arg push: push only AX, not the now-unused DX/CX.

Prologue spill already pulled size/8 = 1 arg register via the
existing tagged-arg loop, so no change needed there.

Two existing helpers in cgen.c get nullable-aware spelling:
type_isnullable() and nullable_ptr_tag() (which variant index is
the *T side; the void side is the other one).

The Hare-style `(*T | null)` spelling isn't supported — `null` is
not a type keyword in ww. Callers use `void` instead, which is
already a real type. The result is the same bit-level layout.
2026-05-12 02:53:47 +09:00

111 KiB