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# PHI and SSA in Nyash
Overview
- Nyash lowers high-level control flow (If/Loop/Match) to MIR and backends that rely on SSA form.
- We prioritize IR hygiene and observability while keeping runtime cost at zero.
Design points
- PHI hygiene: no empty PHIs; PHIs at block head only.
- JoinResult hint: when both branches assign the same variable, we emit a MIR hint for diagnostics.
- Loop carriers: loops may expose a carrier observation (≤ N variables, where N is unconstrained by design; smokes emphasize common cases).
Normalization
- If: may optionally wrap into LoopForm under a conservative gate (dev only). Semantics remain unchanged.
- Match: scrutinee evaluated once, guard fused; normalized to nested Ifchain in macro/core pass.
Testing
- LLVM smokes: fixed small cases ensure no empty PHIs and head placement.
- MIR smokes: trace `scope|join|loop` to validate shaping without peeking into IR details.
Roadmap
- Remove text-level sanitization once finalizePHI is trustworthy across Loop/If/Match.
- Expand goldens to cover nested joins and multicarrier loops while keeping CI light.