# Lux Weaknesses Discovered During Website Development

This document tracks issues and limitations discovered while building the Lux website in Lux.

## Critical Issues

### 1. Module Import System Not Working

**Description:** The `import` statement doesn't appear to work for importing standard library modules.

**Example:**
```lux
import html  // Doesn't make html functions available
```

**Workaround:** Functions must be defined in the same file or copied.

**Status:** Needs investigation

---

### 2. Parse Error in html.lux (Line 196-197)

**Description:** When trying to load files that import the html module, there's a parse error.

**Error Message:**
```
Module error: Module error in '<main>': Parse error: Parse error at 196-197: Unexpected token: \n
```

**Status:** Needs investigation

---

## Minor Issues

### 3. String.replace May Not Exist

**Description:** The `escapeHtml` function in html.lux uses `String.replace`, but this function may not be implemented.

**Workaround:** Implement character-by-character escaping.

**Status:** Needs verification

---

### 4. FileSystem Effect Not Fully Implemented

**Description:** For static site generation, we need `FileSystem.mkdir`, `FileSystem.write`, `FileSystem.copy` operations. These may not be fully implemented.

**Workaround:** Use Bash commands via scripts.

**Status:** Needs verification

---

### 5. List.concat May Have Issues

**Description:** The `List.concat` function used in html.lux document generation may not handle nested lists correctly.

**Status:** Needs verification

---

## Feature Gaps

### 6. No Built-in Static Site Generation

**Description:** There's no built-in way to generate static HTML files from Lux. A static site generator effect or module would be helpful.

**Recommendation:** Add a `FileSystem` effect with:
- `mkdir(path: String): Unit`
- `write(path: String, content: String): Unit`
- `copy(src: String, dst: String): Unit`
- `readDir(path: String): List<String>`

---

### 7. No Template String Support

**Description:** Multi-line strings and template literals (like JavaScript's backticks) would make HTML generation much easier.

**Current Approach:**
```lux
let html = "<div class=\"" + className + "\">" + content + "</div>"
```

**Better Approach (not available):**
```lux
let html = `<div class="${className}">${content}</div>`
```

**Status:** Feature request

---

### 8. No Markdown Parser

**Description:** A built-in Markdown parser would be valuable for documentation sites.

**Status:** Feature request

---

## Working Features

These features work correctly and can be used for website generation:

1. **String concatenation** - Works with `+` operator
2. **Conditional expressions** - `if/then/else` works
3. **Console output** - `Console.print()` works
4. **Basic types** - `String`, `Int`, `Bool` work
5. **Let bindings** - Variable assignment works
6. **Functions** - Function definitions work

---

## Recommendations

### For Website MVP

Since the module system isn't working, the website should be:
1. **Hand-written HTML** (already done in `dist/index.html`)
2. **CSS separate file** (already done in `static/style.css`)
3. **Lux code examples** embedded as text in HTML

### For Future

Once these issues are fixed, the website can be:
1. **Generated from Lux** using the components and pages modules
2. **Markdown-based documentation** parsed and rendered by Lux
3. **Live playground** using WASM compilation

---

## Test Results

| Feature | Status | Notes |
|---------|--------|-------|
| String concatenation | ✅ Works | `"<" + tag + ">"` |
| Conditionals | ✅ Works | `if x then y else z` |
| Console.print | ✅ Works | Basic output |
| Module imports | ❌ Broken | Parse errors |
| Html module | ❌ Blocked | Depends on imports |
| FileSystem | ❓ Unknown | Not tested |

---

## Date Log

| Date | Finding |
|------|---------|
| 2026-02-16 | Module import system not working, parse error at line 196-197 in html.lux |