feat(compiler)!: deprecate @inflight intrinsic

[Chriscbr]

This PR deprecates @inflight(), an intrinsic function that was added to the Wing language with the aim of streamlining the process of integrating existing TypeScript code into Wing programs.

Today, the language currently supports two mechanisms for interoperating with TypeScript code: extern methods and @inflight. (See docs: https://github.com/winglang/wing/blob/9c36ce5fd386123744079db65e7e9b22f356a16a/docs/api/03-language/10-using-javascript.md). The main differences between them are:

• extern requires you to specify the signature of the function you're using in Wing, while signature of the @inflight function can be inferred
• @inflight allows you to interact with Wing resources from TypeScript, while extern only allows passing non-resource types (e.g. primitives, collections, functions)

The @inflight syntax has a few DX problems that make it tricky to use, without clear paths to resolution. The main issues are:

• It's hard for users to correctly set up the type-linkage between Wing and TypeScript.
• Type checking errors inside TypeScript files won't result in compilation errors to your Wing project. To provide a guarantee like this, we would require coupling our compilation process to that of TypeScript's.
• By exposing Wing resources to TypeScript through the "lifts" object, users to lose the permission-inferred experience that they get when writing inflight code in Winglang. If users specify the wrong permissions or "ops", the errors will only be caught at runtime.

The @inflight syntax was a valuable experiment and it's possible a variation on this will return in the future.

In the mean time, we're planning to focus on improving the experience of making TypeScript code available to Wing by bringing the type systems closer together, and improving the ergonomics of the language's extern, and exploring other ideas like supporting mechanisms for importing TypeScript libraries directly into Wing.

BREAKING CHANGE: @inflight() has been removed. We recommend using the existing extern method syntax for directly referencing JavaScript or TypeScript code that does not use Wing resources.

Checklist

• Title matches Winglang's style guide
• Description explains motivation and solution
• Tests added (always)
• Docs updated (only required for features)
• Added pr/e2e-full label if this feature requires end-to-end testing

By submitting this pull request, I confirm that my contribution is made under the terms of the Wing Cloud Contribution License.

[github-actions]

Thanks for opening this pull request! 🎉
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If you need any assistance, don't hesitate to ping the relevant owner over Discord.

Topic	Owner
Wing SDK and standard library	@chriscbr
Wing Console	@skyrpex
Wing compiler and language design	@chriscbr
VSCode extension and language server	@chriscbr
Wing CLI	@chriscbr
Documentation	@boyney123
Examples	@boyney123
Wing Playground	@skyrpex

[monadabot]

Console preview environment is available at https://wing-console-pr-6988.fly.dev 🚀

Last Updated (UTC) 2024-08-05 22:51

[monadabot]

Benchmarks

Comparison to Baseline ⬜🟥⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜

Benchmark	Before	After	Change
version	56ms±0.57	56ms±0.47	-1ms (-1.17%)⬜
empty.test.w -t sim	370ms±4.65	390ms±22.88	+20ms (+5.4%)🟥
empty.test.w -t tf-aws	612ms±4.1	604ms±3.48	-8ms (-1.27%)⬜
hello_world.test.w -t sim	410ms±11.04	403ms±2.56	-7ms (-1.78%)⬜
hello_world.test.w -t tf-aws	1505ms±16.95	1506ms±16.53	+1ms (+0.06%)⬜
jsii_small.test.w -t sim	379ms±3.5	379ms±4.6	0ms (-0.04%)⬜
jsii_small.test.w -t tf-aws	621ms±5.87	620ms±3.49	-1ms (-0.16%)⬜
jsii_big.test.w -t sim	2947ms±6.96	2960ms±20.88	+14ms (+0.46%)⬜
jsii_big.test.w -t tf-aws	3152ms±10.34	3168ms±9.46	+16ms (+0.52%)⬜
functions_1.test.w -t sim	407ms±3.15	411ms±10.24	+4ms (+1.05%)⬜
functions_1.test.w -t tf-aws	851ms±3.97	852ms±4.14	+0ms (+0.05%)⬜
functions_10.test.w -t sim	496ms±8.43	505ms±10.62	+9ms (+1.8%)⬜
functions_10.test.w -t tf-aws	2183ms±14.42	2167ms±17.71	-16ms (-0.74%)⬜

⬜ Within 1.5 standard deviations
🟩 Faster, Above 1.5 standard deviations
🟥 Slower, Above 1.5 standard deviations

Benchmarks may vary outside of normal expectations, especially when running in GitHub Actions CI.

Results

name	mean	min	max	moe	sd
version	56ms	55ms	57ms	0ms	1ms
empty.test.w -t sim	390ms	362ms	452ms	23ms	32ms
empty.test.w -t tf-aws	604ms	596ms	612ms	3ms	5ms
hello_world.test.w -t sim	403ms	398ms	409ms	3ms	4ms
hello_world.test.w -t tf-aws	1506ms	1483ms	1555ms	17ms	23ms
jsii_small.test.w -t sim	379ms	372ms	394ms	5ms	6ms
jsii_small.test.w -t tf-aws	620ms	613ms	629ms	3ms	5ms
jsii_big.test.w -t sim	2960ms	2913ms	3007ms	21ms	29ms
jsii_big.test.w -t tf-aws	3168ms	3147ms	3193ms	9ms	13ms
functions_1.test.w -t sim	411ms	399ms	447ms	10ms	14ms
functions_1.test.w -t tf-aws	852ms	841ms	861ms	4ms	6ms
functions_10.test.w -t sim	505ms	478ms	523ms	11ms	15ms
functions_10.test.w -t tf-aws	2167ms	2123ms	2204ms	18ms	25ms

Last Updated (UTC) 2024-08-05 22:56

[eladb]

👍

[mergify]

Thanks for contributing, @Chriscbr! This PR will now be added to the merge queue, or immediately merged if rybickic/deprecate-inflight-intrinsic is up-to-date with main and the queue is empty.

[monadabot]

Congrats! 🚀 This was released in Wing 0.82.0.