lux/website/lux-site/LUX_WEAKNESSES.md

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:

import html  // Doesn't make html functions available

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

Status: Needs investigation

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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>

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7. No Template String Support

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

Current Approach:

let html = "<div class=\"" + className + "\">" + content + "</div>"

Better Approach (not available):

let html = `<div class="${className}">${content}</div>`

Status: Feature request

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8. No Markdown Parser

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

Status: Feature request

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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

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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

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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

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Date Log

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