External Memory¶

IBC marks access used for Inter Binary Communication with external data. It is an access qualifier on pointers and references:

VAR view IBC CONST->U32;
VAR bytes IBC MUT=>>BYTE;

The IBC qualifier precedes MUT, CONST, TEMP, or WRITE and the pointer/reference form. Adding or removing IBC qualification requires an explicit cast in either direction. AUTO& deduction preserves the incoming IBC qualification. Copying a value through an IBC reference produces an ordinary value.

Access propagation¶

Fields of IBC_STRUCT expose IBC-qualified access. Their declared field types remain unchanged. IBC qualification also follows field projection, array indexing, dereference, and address-taking through an IBC view.

When a pointer is stored in an IBC-accessed field, loading the pointer preserves the pointer's own declared pointee qualification. IBC qualification of the field storage does not automatically qualify the loaded pointer's target.

Aliasing and lifetime¶

Ordinary Quxlang storage is accessed through its active type and valid lifetime. There is no general byte/character or signed/unsigned aliasing exception. IBC is for external data. It does not authorize constructing overlapping ordinary objects or accessing an object after destruction. Explicit conversion back to ordinary access requires the ordinary type and lifetime contract to hold.

Runtime address operations¶

These built-ins require native addressable memory and runtime execution. They fail if executed during constant evaluation and are unavailable on the JVM:

Operation	Contract
`IBC_GETADDR(@PTR pointer)`	Export a pointer as `ADDRESS`.
`IBC_PUN#PointerType(@ADDR address)`	Interpret an address as the complete requested pointer type.
`IBC_LOAD#T(@ADDR address)`	Load an external value of type `T`.
`IBC_WRITE#T(@ADDR address, @VALUE value)`	Store a value of type `T` into external memory.

IBC_PUN takes the complete pointer type, including any IBC and access qualifiers. It rejects a reference type or a bare pointee type. The address operand of IBC_PUN, IBC_LOAD, and IBC_WRITE must be ADDRESS.

::packet IBC_STRUCT
{
  .sequence VAR U32;
}

::read_packet FUNCTION(@address ADDRESS): U32
{
  VAR view IBC CONST->packet := IBC_PUN#(IBC CONST->packet)(@ADDR address);
  RETURN view->.sequence;
}

::write_sequence FUNCTION(@address ADDRESS, @sequence U32)
{
  IBC_WRITE#U32(@ADDR address, @VALUE sequence);
}

The caller supplies valid external storage of the required size, alignment, representation, and access permissions. Null pointer/address conversion is preserved by IBC_GETADDR and IBC_PUN; this does not permit a null load or store. NULL also constructs a null ADDRESS directly.

For ordinary object storage, use the lifetime operations in Object Storage and Lifetime.