Generics
In a lot of cases, you want code to be generic over many different types, therefore both types and units support generic parameters.
Defining generics
Units and types which are generic have their generic parameters specified inside angle brackets (<>) after the name. The generics can be either integers denoted by #, or types which do not have # sign. In the body of the generic item, the generic types are referred to by their names
For example a struct storing an array of arbitrary length and type is defined as
struct ContainsArray<T, #N> {
inner: [T; N]
}Using generics
When specifying generic parameters, angle brackets (<>) are also used. For example, a function which takes a ContainsArray with 5 8-bit integers is defined as
Functions together with Entities together with fn and Defines a pipeline. The number in in the parentheses is input-to-output latency of the pipeline. are the basic building blocks of Spade circuits. Unlike fn, entity can contain registers and therefore have state and unlike Defines a pipeline. The number in in the parentheses is input-to-output latency of the pipeline., they do not have a statically known latency or Defines a pipeline. The number in in the parentheses is input-to-output latency of the pipeline. structure. and Defines a pipeline. The number in in the parentheses is input-to-output latency of the pipeline. are the basic building blocks of Spade circuits. Unlike entities and pipelines, functions have no internal state, they are combinational (pure). takes_array(a: ContainsArray<Type used to represent signed integers. The generic parameter (<N>) specReturns the value of the first branch if the condition is true, otherwise the second branch.
Note that unlike software languages, Spade does not have conditional execution. You do not conditionally assign values inside if expressiosn, you compute a value and return it.ies the number of bits, 5>) {
...
}