Slang User's Guide
- Introduction
  - Why use Slang?
  - Who is Slang for?
  - Who is this guide for?
  - Goals and Non-Goals
- Getting Started with Slang
  - Installation
  - Your first Slang shader
  - The full example
- Conventional Language Features
  - Types
  - Expressions
  - Statements
  - Functions
  - Preprocessor
  - Attributes
  - Global Variables and Shader Parameters
  - Shader Entry Points
  - Mixed Shader Entry Points
  - Auto-Generated Constructors
  - Initializer Lists
- Basic Convenience Features
  - Type Inference in Variable Definitions
  - Immutable Values
  - Namespaces
  - Member functions
  - Properties
  - Initializers
  - Operator Overloading
  - Subscript Operator
  - Tuple Types
  - `Optional<T>` type
  - `if_let` syntax
  - `reinterpret<T>` operation
  - Pointers (limited)
  - `DescriptorHandle` for Bindless Descriptor Access
  - Extensions
  - Multi-level break
  - Force inlining
  - Special Scoping Syntax
  - User Defined Attributes (Experimental)
- Modules and Access Control
  - Defining a Module
  - Importing a Module
  - Access Control
  - Organizing File Structure of Modules
  - Legacy Modules
- Capabilities
  - Capability Atoms and Capability Requirements
  - Conflicting Capabilities
  - Requirements in Parent Scope
  - Inference of Capability Requirements
  - Inference on target_switch
  - Capability Aliases
  - Validation of Capability Requirements
- Interfaces and Generics
  - Interfaces
  - Generics
  - Supported Constructs in Interface Definitions
  - Associated Types
  - Generic Value Parameters
  - Type Equality Constraints
  - Interface-typed Values
  - Extending a Type with Additional Interface Conformances
  - `is` and `as` Operator
  - Generic Interfaces
  - Generic Extensions
  - Extensions to Interfaces
  - Variadic Generics
  - Builtin Interfaces
- Automatic Differentiation
  - Auto-diff operations `fwd_diff` and `bwd_diff`
  - Differentiable Type System
  - User-Defined Derivative Functions
  - Using Auto-diff with Generics
  - Using Auto-diff with Interface Requirements and Interface Types
  - Primal Substitute Functions
  - Working with Mixed Differentiable and Non-Differentiable Code
  - Higher-Order Differentiation
  - Restrictions and Known Issues
  - Reference
- Compiling Code with Slang
  - Concepts
  - Command-Line Compilation with `slangc`
  - Using the Compilation API
  - Multithreading
  - Compiler Options
  - Debugging
- Using the Reflection API
  - Compiling a Program
  - Types and Variables
  - Layout for Types and Variables
  - Programs and Scopes
  - Calculating Cumulative Offsets
  - Determining Whether Parameters Are Used
  - Conclusion
- Supported Compilation Targets
  - Background and Terminology
  - Direct3D 11
  - Direct3D 12
  - Vulkan
  - OpenGL
  - Metal
  - CUDA and OptiX
  - CPU Compute
  - WebGPU
  - Summary
- Link-time Specialization and Module Precompilation
  - Link-time Constants
  - Link-time Types
  - Providing Default Settings
  - Restrictions
  - Using Precompiling Modules with the API
  - Additional Remarks
- Special Topics
  - Handling Matrix Layout Differences on Different Platforms
    - Two conventions of matrix transform math
    - Discussion
    - Matrix Layout
    - Overriding default matrix layout
  - Obfuscation
    - Obfuscation in Slang
    - Using An Obfuscated Module
    - Accessing Source Maps
    - Accessing Source Maps without Files
    - Emit Source Maps
    - Issues/Future Work
  - Interoperation with Target-Specific Code
    - Defining Intrinsic Functions for Textual Targets
    - Defining Intrinsic Types
    - Injecting Preludes
    - Managing Cross-Platform Code
    - Inline SPIRV Assembly
  - Uniformity Analysis
    - Treat Values as Uniform
    - Treat Function Return Values as Non-uniform
- Target-specific features
  - SPIR-V specific functionalities
    - Experimental support for the older versions of SPIR-V
    - Combined texture sampler
    - System-Value semantics
    - Behavior of `discard` after SPIR-V 1.6
    - Supported HLSL features when targeting SPIR-V
    - Unsupported GLSL keywords when targeting SPIR-V
    - Supported atomic types for each target
    - ConstantBuffer, StructuredBuffer and ByteAddressBuffer
    - ParameterBlock for SPIR-V target
    - Push Constants
    - Specialization Constants
    - SPIR-V specific Attributes
    - Multiple entry points support
    - Global memory pointers
    - Matrix type translation
    - Legalization
    - Tessellation
    - SPIR-V specific Compiler options
  - Metal-specific functionalities
    - Entry Point Parameter Handling
    - System-Value semantics
    - Interpolation Modifiers
    - Resource Types
    - Header Inclusions and Namespace
    - Parameter blocks and Argument Buffers
    - Struct Parameter Flattening
    - Return Value Handling
    - Value Type Conversion
    - Conservative Rasterization
    - Address Space Assignment
    - Explicit Parameter Binding
    - Specialization Constants
  - WGSL specific functionalities
    - System-Value semantics
    - Supported HLSL features when targeting WGSL
    - Supported atomic types
    - ConstantBuffer, (RW/RasterizerOrdered)StructuredBuffer, (RW/RasterizerOrdered)ByteAddressBuffer
    - Specialization Constants
    - Interlocked operations
    - Entry Point Parameter Handling
    - Parameter blocks
    - Write-only Textures
    - Pointers
    - Address Space Assignment
    - Matrix type translation
    - Explicit Parameter Binding
    - Specialization Constants
- Reference
  - Capability Profiles
  - Capability Atoms
    - Targets
    - Stages
    - Versions
    - Extensions
    - Compound Capabilities
    - Other

Slang User’s Guide

Welcome to the Slang User’s Guide, an introduction to the Slang language, compiler, and API. In this guide, you will learn:

Slang’s language features, including those inherited from HLSL and additional language features to make it easy to work with shaders.
The compiler API that controls how to assemble shaders from different pieces of code, and how they are compiled for different targets.
The reflection API that allows the host application to query the details of shader code in order to generate the right shader kernel and to set shader parameters correctly.

Note: this documentation is still under active development. While the coverage on language features is complete, we are still working on the remaining chapters on Slang’s compilation and reflection API.