Taichi

Full changelog:
- [refactor] Merge taichi.misc into taichi.tools. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Merge taichi.lang.types into taichi.types. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- Add /bigobj flag to allow Debug builds on windows (3730) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [misc] Add an option to skip version check (3729) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [refactor] Separate Cpp examples into different files (3728) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [ci] [bug] Fix release in CI (3719) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [Lang] Support annotated assignment (3709) (by **Ziwen Ye**)
- [vulkan] Further decouple SPIRV codegen from Vulkan runtime (3711) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [refactor] First clang-tidy pass (3407) (by **Taichi Gardener**)
- [misc] Remove legacy Windows-related scripts (3722) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [misc] Error handle and TLS (3718) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- fix tab and long line (3669) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [bug] Fix template arguments of ti.func with default values (3716) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [refactor] Rename CompiledProgram to CompiledTaichiKernel. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Add doc string for ndarray element_shapes & field_dim. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- Update euler.py (3715) (by **skywf**)
- [misc] Use ccache & prefer Ninja over Make as cmake (3712) (by **Ailing**)
- fix the script path in release workflow (3713) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [ci] Use the same script for docker and system build & test (3698) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [example] SPIR-V AOT example in C++ (3707) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [LLVM] Add missing pre-processor macro when LLVM is disabled (3702) (by **Gabriel H**)
- [example] Build cpp examples (3705) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [doc] Improve the dev install doc (3685) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [cuda] Enable block splitting for cuda caching memory allocator (3677) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [ci] Run cpp tests in unix_docker_test.sh (3693) (by **Jian Zeng**)
- [refactor] [opengl] Properly save both scalar args and array args. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] [opengl] For each taichi kernel, save a {kernel_name, CompiledProgram} pair instead of a vector. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] [opengl] Use CompiledOffloadedTask instead of CompiledKernel. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] [opengl] Remove dtype & total_size_hint in serialized aot file. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [Lang] Make example_any_arrays optional. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [Lang] Add optional element_shapes & field_dim annotation to ndarray. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [vulkan] Isolate SPIR-V codegen, cleanup Vulkan backend (3676) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [refactor] Turn off empty root buffer warning for finalize_for_aot. (3681) (by **Ailing**)
- [misc] Handle outermost error and change metadata server address to latest (3686) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [refactor] Remove ext_arr_map in favor of CompiledArrayData. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Remove unused functions in misc. (3671) (by **Ailing**)
- [ci] Fix cancel workflow to only cancel the same branch (3678) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [refactor] Rename testing.py to _testing.py (3668) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Vulkan] add initial support of AOT (3647) (by **Gabriel H**)
- [refactor] Move image.py from misc/ to tools/ and remove it from top level package (3672) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [opengl] [refactor] Expose use_gles in CompileConfig. (3662) (by **Ailing**)
- checkout the repo for cancel (3670) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [refactor] [opengl] Move ndarray aot information inside kernels. (3658) (by **Ailing**)
- [ci] Add sccache to ci building process on Linux and Mac jobs (3559) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [refactor] Remove np2ply, patterns, video from top level package (3660) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [ci] Set token in cancel workfow (3664) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [ci] Run code format check for doc-only changes as well. (3665) (by **Ailing**)
- [bug] Fix postsubmit (3661) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [cuda] Query the max block count from the hardware (3657) (by **Bob Cao**)
- Restructured dev_install.md (3616) (by **Vissidarte-Herman**)
- [error] Let type_check throw TypeError (3650) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- Attempt to unite postsubmit and presubmit (3654) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [Refactor] Deprecate Expr::operator= (3596) (by **Jun**)
- Use helper fill function (3655) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [perf] Accelerate _inside_class() (3653) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Bug] [lang] Fix copying Matrix/StructField elements in Taichi scope (3649) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [refactor] Ignore filename prefix in opengl aot files. (3648) (by **Ailing**)
- [error] Add line number and source code to exception (3637) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [Lang] Cuda caching allocator for ndarray 1/n (3581) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [refactor] Move GUI from misc to ui. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Get rid of tools/file.py (3645) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [refactor] Get rid of tools/messenger.py. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Get rid of ti.task. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Remove primitive_types module in top level package. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [Bug] [lang] Fix copying a Matrix/Struct from Python scope to Taichi scope (3638) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Lang] Add option short_circuit_operators for short-circuiting boolean ops (3632) (by **daylily**)
- Fix build script for docker build (3629) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [gui] Fix incorrect shading when first calling mesh/particles (3628) (by **Chang Yu**)
- [misc] Temporarily disable performance monitoring for testing offline (3626) (by **rocket**)
- [refactor] Get rid of ASTTransformerTotal and rename IRBuilder to ASTTransformer (3610) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [bug] Correctly support serializing maps & vectors to json. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [bug][opengl] Only add atomicAdd functions in generated code for arrs when they're used. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Do not expand to absolute path for saved shaders. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- Respect drawing order specified by user (3614) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [bug] Revert part of 3569 so that tests are not skipped. (3620) (by **Ailing**)
- [lang] Disable signal handlers when TI_DISABLE_SIGNAL_HANDLERS=1 (3613) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [misc] Do not let check_version block users (3619) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- fix unix build script for nightly build (3618) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [Lang] Implement opt_level for accelerating compiling (3434) (by **squarefk**)
- [gui] Fix vulkan glfw image count (3604) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [misc] Remove legacy torch_io.py (3609) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [bug] Enable reassignment of scalar arguments (3607) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [misc] Fix upload release error handling (3606) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [opengl] Serialize ndarrays and ndarray-based kernels in AOT. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [opengl] Support taichi ndarray on opengl backend and enable tests. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [llvm] Make taichi's Ndarray carry a ptr to its DeviceAllocation. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- Temporarily disable flaky test (3603) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [Opt] [ir] [refactor] Remove exception from simpify pass (3317) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [misc] Version bump: v0.8.6 -> v0.8.7 (3602) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [mesh] Make ti.Mesh compatible with dynamic index (3599) (by **Yi Xu**)

**Notes:**

We added a function to periodically check version information on `ti.init` to remind users if a new version has been released. However, this function is not fully tested when 0.8.6 is released, and the error handling is not well-implemented. Taichi crashes when it fails to check the version (maybe due to network issues). For this reason, 0.8.6 is removed from the official releases in PyPI. Please upgrade to a newer version if you are on this version. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Full changelog:
- [Lang] Check version when importing taichi instead of when using ti (3598) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [Lang] Add ti.round op (3541) (by **gaoxinge**)
- [Bug] [ir] Fix the IdentifyValuesUsedInOtherOffloads pass (3597) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [ci] Fix release (3594) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [perf] Add async_mode restriction to ti.sync() of external_arrays in class Kernel (3535) (by **rocket**)
- [Lang] Add time check before performing version check (3589) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [Doc] Fix example link in README. (3584) (by **egolearner**)
- [gui] GGUI initial alpha transparency support (3592) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [ci] Turn off vulkan build on macos (3591) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [ci] Fix release bug (3585) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [misc] Update documentations after the examples directory changed (3587) (by **Velaciela**)
- [bug] Fix missing tests/ folder in postsubmit & release workflows. (3583) (by **Ailing**)
- [refactor] Avoid copying examples/ folder when building taichi. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [Test] Remove ti test from taichi package. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [ci] Fix postsubmit mac build failure (3579) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [misc] MoltenVK dynamic library & allow overriding CLANG_EXECUTABLE (3565) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [Lang] Add get_element_size for ndarray (3576) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [ci] Remove usage of build.py in favor of setup.py (3537) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [Bug] [llvm] Fix FP<->UInt castings (3560) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Bug] [vulkan] Fix data type alignment for arguments and return values (3571) (by **Yi Xu**)
- ci (3569) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [Bug] [metal] Fix data type alignment for arguments and return values (3564) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Mesh] [opt] Support mesh-for for multi-CPUs & demote atomic stmts in BLS for x64 (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] Remove Matrix.with_entries() & support ti.mesh_patch_idx() (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] Support mesh-for for CPU backend (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] [refactor] Migrate ti.Mesh to refactored frontend (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] Add type_check for ti.Mesh frontend (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Add CI tests for ti.Mesh (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] Decouple metadata (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] Fix misc & restore code formatter (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Reduce SNode trees allocation for ti.Mesh (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] Refactor serialize() for frontend IR (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] Fix bugs to enable reordered mesh attribute (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] Fix bugs to enable nested relation access (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] [refactor] Refactor frontend (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] [opt] Demote no relation access mesh-for to range-for (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] Quick fix bugs after rebase (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Fix Layout.AOS (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] Quick fix bugs after rebase (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] [fix] Fix failed caching mapping only (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] Add experimental compile configs (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] [refactor] Remove MeshAttribute in mesh class (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] [opt] Make mesh attribute local (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] [Lang] Quick fix rebase conflicts (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Add analyzer to determine which mapping should be cache (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Clean MeshAttributeSet in DecoratorRecorder (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] [refactor] Add global to reordered index mapping type (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Mesh] [refactor] Unified MeshRelationAccessStmt and MeshRelationSizeStmt (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] [refactor] Rename to_string functions (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Use ti.axes instead of ti.indices (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Add ti.mesh_local() (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] [refactor] Divide make_mesh_index_mapping_local pass into multiple functions (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] [test] Delete outdated mesh-for test (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] [opt] Optimize reordered index mapping case (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] [refactor] from_type() as statement attribute (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Add optimization pass to make index mapping local (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Set MeshTaichi as extension (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] [refactor] Rename make_mesh_attribute_local to demote_mesh_statements (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Support low-to-high and same-order relation access (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Add analysis pass to gather mesh thread local variables (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Add analysis pass to gather mesh_for relation types (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Clean up field template based residual & fix bugs (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Id property to interact with non-mesh field (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] MeshRelationAccessStmt & MeshIndexConversionStmt backend implementation (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Frontend Impl (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Fix code format (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] [IR] Add MeshRelationAccessStmt & MeshIndexConversionStmt (by **g1n0st**)
- [IR] Quick fix rebase conflict (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] [Lang] New ti.Mesh frontend class prototype & MeshRelationSize statement and expression (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Fix mesh-for in multiple passes (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Fix type_check pass for body_prologue in OffloadedStmt (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Add make_mesh_thread_local pass (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Make the type of loop in MeshPatchIndexStmt explicit (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Make get num_patches behavior correctly (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Removed wildcard import in python (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Add MeshPatchIndexStmt statement (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Add a backend Mesh class prototype & relation based mesh_for (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] [refactor] Create a new pass called make_mesh_attribute_local (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] A simple BLS pass to do the local to global mapping (by **bx2k**)
- [Mesh] A Frontend ti.Mesh class prototype (by **g1n0st**)
- [Mesh] Fix meshfor at simplify pass (by **bx2k**)
- [Mesh] A simple meshfor frontend enable to print index (by **bx2k**)
- [Mesh] Add Meshfor prototype with dirty hacks (by **bx2k**)
- [LLVM] Fix casting f64 to f16 (3561) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [misc] Improve the mechanism to find clang (3379) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [CI] Add version database update in CD (3540) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [Doc] Move build Taichi from source one level up (3551) (by **tison**)
- [Misc] [refactor] Move symbol versioning to a new file (3426) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [misc] Fix redefined reset function (3227) (3521) (by **u2386**)
- [ci] Dockerfile for CPU manylinux2014 compliant (3542) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [Lang] [bug] Fix numpy from and to ndarray matrix (3549) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [Lang] Remove disable_local_tensor and empty() from Matrix (3546) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [refactor] Remove with_entries() and keep_raw from Matrix (3539) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [lang] Limit torch based ndarray to cpu/cuda backend. (3545) (by **Ailing**)
- [Refactor] Fix typo and type in docstring, and format too long string (3530) (by **gaoxinge**)
- [Lang] Add check version function to taichi main (3526) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [bug] Remove fallback in C++ code (3538) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [refactor] Remove empty_copy() and copy() from Matrix/Struct (3536) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [misc] Reorg CI stages (3525) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [ci] Remove build_and_test_cpu_required from CI to save time (3534) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [refactor] Remove variable() of Matrix/Struct and empty() of Matrix/StructType (3531) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [ci] Disable arch fallback on CI (3474) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [refactor] Decouple KernelProfilerBase::sync() from Program::synchronize() (3504) (by **rocket**)
- [Lang] Add deepcopy for ndarray (3473) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule E1101 (3500) (by **DeepDuke**)
- [Lang] Implement ti.global_thread_idx (3319) (by **Shay P.C**)
- [refactor] Remove the old AST builder from python frontend (3527) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [Lang] Remove disable_local_tensor in most cases (3524) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [opengl] Use separate ssbo for external arrays. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Rename Context to RuntimeContext. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [Lang] Enable local tensors as writeback binary operation results (3517) (by **Yi Xu**)
- fix (3523) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [metal] Add a TI_WITH_METAL option (3510) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule W0621 (3498) (by **ZONEPG**)
- [refactor] Enable the new ast builder by default (3516) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [ci] Add a helper script for Dockerfile generation. (3509) (by **Chengchen(Rex) Wang**)
- [ci] Fix release action now being able to be triggered manually (3520) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- Create CONTRIBUTING.md (3518) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- Update unix_build.sh (3511) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [ci] Minor fix for windows release upload. (3513) (by **Ailing**)
- [llvm] Add a TI_WITH_LLVM option (3507) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [CUDA] Fix a misuse of std::move: address of stack memory associated with temporary object of type std::lock_guard<std::mutex> returned to caller (3502) (by **Twice**)
- [Lang] Add W0101 rule for pylint (3497) (by **Ligeng Zhu**)
- Add PEP 517 build specification (3495) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule W0622 (3501) (by **Mark Huang**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule R1710 (3496) (by **licktion**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule W0612 (3151) (3488) (by **klein**)
- [ci] Fix pylint conflicts (3503) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule C0209 (3489) (by **zstone12**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule W0404 (3477) (by **Dustyposa**)
- fix pylint W0235 (3486) (by **ImPerat0R_**)
- [IR] Enforce type check for all expressions (3461) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule W0101 (3493) (by **darkSheep**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule W0108 (3482) (by **Isaac**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule R0201 (3494) (by **Alex Chi**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule C0200 (3480) (by **Keming**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule R1705 (3491) (by **IceCodeNew**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule R1732 (3490) (by **IceCodeNew**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule R1703 (3472) (by **HHHJH**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule R0205 (3487) (by **Isaac**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule R0402 (3483) (by **Yu Dou**)
- [misc] Enable clang-tidy check in CI (3475) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [Doc] Fix wrong example about TAICHI_CMAKE_ARGS (3485) (by **Jun**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule W0201 (3476) (by **Dustyposa**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule W0611 (3478) (by **ZHANG Zhi**)
- [docs] Remove ti format in doc. (3479) (by **Ailing**)
- [Lang] Enable local tensors as arithmetic operation results (3468) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Lang] Fix pylint rule W0401 (3471) (by **Alkaid**)
- [Lang] Change the type error to a real exception (3439) (by **Frost Ming**)
- Report error if upload fails (3462) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [opengl] Unify windows path to posix format in python. (3470) (by **Ailing**)
- [Bug] [opt] Visit RangeForStmt in IdentifyValuesUsedInOtherOffloads (3466) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [vulkan] Link to MoltenVK on macOS (3445) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [vulkan] Basic Bitmasked support (3412) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [opengl] Make windows path in saved aot json human readable. (3460) (by **Ailing**)
- [refactor] [bug] Eliminate failing tests on the new AST builder (3441) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [misc] Add default values of TI_VERSION (3459) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [misc] Temporarily disable clang-tidy check. (3458) (by **Ailing**)
- [misc] Remove regex in TextSerializer. (3454) (by **Ailing**)
- [IR] Add type_check for Atomic/SNodeOpExpression (3444) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [IR] Remove EvalExpression (3448) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [misc] Version bump: v0.8.5->v0.8.6. (3457) (by **Ailing**)

Full changelog:
- [misc] Fix python wheel versioning. (3450) (by **Ailing**)
- [misc] Version bump: v0.8.4->v0.8.5. (3447) (by **Ailing**)
- [IR] Add type inference for loop variables (3437) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [LLVM] Fix link (3443) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [IR] Add type_check for RangeAssumption/LoopUnique/ExternalTensorShapeAlongAxisExpression (3436) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [llvm] Support atomic operations of f16 (3428) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [Doc] Put back content from old docs/lang/api/atomic.md (3440) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [refactor] Add Assert, BoolOp, NamedExpr and dict to the new AST builder (3398) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [Bug] Revert 3428 (3438) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [gui] GGUI Tests (3430) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [gui] Fix canvas.lines on macOS (3432) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [ci] Fix aws machine not removing container (3435) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [gui] Show f16 image as f32. (3433) (by **Ailing**)
- [ci] Move required cpu check to AWS machine (3427) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [Refactor] Simplify runtime function definition (3429) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [lang] [refactor] Use preallocated memory via device allocation for Ndarray (3395) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [refactor] Add ListComp and DictComp to the new AST builder (3400) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [ci] Add build script for win (3410) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [OpenGL] Add mem_offset_in_parent to serialized file in AOT. (3418) (by **Ailing**)
- Update gui.md: comprehend widgets example (3424) (by **FantasyVR**)
- [refactor] Add for and while to the new frontend AST builder (3353) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [CI] Recheck the title format when user updates the title (3403) (by **Manjusaka**)
- [Refactor] Use wrapped create_call (3421) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [Doc] Update dev install about m1 prebuilt llvm. (3419) (by **Ailing**)
- [opengl] Save opengl aot data in json format. (3417) (by **Ailing**)
- [IR] Add type_check for expressions related to fields and matrices (3377) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [misc] Update "get_largest_pot" in scalar.h + Bug Fix (3405) (by **Niclas Schwalbe**)
- [refactor] Remove Matrix.new (3408) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [refactor] Remove handling for real types in set_arg_int. (3388) (by **Ailing**)
- [CI] skip the full test when the PR just get Docs change (3399) (by **Manjusaka**)
- [LLVM] Fix logging formats (3404) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- Update GLFW (3406) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [IR] Fix continue statement in struct for and add a related test (3282) (by **bx2k**)
- Fix non 4 byte element external array in SPIR-V codegen & enable f16 test for Vulkan (3396) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [misc] Add new issues templates (3390) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [refactor] Add SparseMatrixBuilder and any_array support in kernel argument in the new AST builder (3352) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [Doc] Put back content from old docs/lang/api/arithmetics.md (3394) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Refactor] Move the cuda codegen part of atan2/pow to codegen_cuda.cpp (3392) (by **Jian Zeng**)
- [Doc] Fix an API typo in GGUI doc (3397) (by **Chang Yu**)
- [example] Create inital_value_problem.py (3383) (by **Niclas Schwalbe**)
- [gui] Allowing recreating GGUI windows after ti.reset() (3389) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [ci] Add clang-tidy in CI (3354) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [metal] Add mem_offset_in_parent to AOT module (3245) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [vulkan] FP16 support, fix a few bugs & warnings (3387) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [Lang] fp16 interacts with pytorch. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [llvm] Basic f16 support (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [cuda] Perf: Use the min between saturation grid dim and const range-for dim (3314) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [IR] Add type_check for TernaryOpExpression (3381) (by **Yuheng Zou**)
- [lang] [refactor] Use DeviceAllocation for Ndarray (3366) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [Test] Fix uninitialized tests for ndarray (3365) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- repush (3376) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- feat: define __str__ method for DataType (3370) (by **Jian Zeng**)
- [opengl] Do not use macros in GLSL codegen (3369) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [Lang] Call external function with llvm bitcode (2873) (by **squarefk**)
- [opengl] Off-screen context using EGL & Support GLES (3358) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [misc] Move configured headers out of the binary directory (3363) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [misc] Use configured headers to track version and commit hash (3349) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [IR] Add type_check for UnaryOpExpression (3355) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [gui] Fix IMGUI when GGUI is running in headless mode (3357) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [doc] Ggui image IO and headless docs (3359) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [ir] Add missing constructors for TypedConstant (3351) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Lang] Better type error messages (3345) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [gui] Headless GGUI (3348) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [refactor] Add IfExp, static assign and AugAssign to the new frontend AST builder (3299) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [Refactor] Python frontend refactor: build_call part, support format print and fstring (3342) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [refactor] Add compare to the new python frontend ast builder (3344) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [gui] Fix bug where VBO/IBO cannot exceed 128 MB(3347) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [ci] Set GITHUB_CONTEXT for performance monitoring (3343) (by **rocket**)
- [opengl] Only run preprocess_kernels when glslc is available. (3341) (by **Ailing**)
- [CI] Linux CD containerization (3339) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [opengl] Expose allow_nv_shader_extension in compileconfig. (3340) (by **Ailing**)
- [ci] Update windows postsubmit job timeout to 90mins. (3336) (by **Ailing**)
- [ci] Update postsubmit job performance_monitoring (3296) (by **rocket**)
- [benchmark] Store the benchmark results as json files (3294) (by **rocket**)
- [docs] Only preview english doc. (3338) (by **Ailing**)
- [IR] Support frontend type inference in simple cases (3302) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [gui] GGUI Image IO (well, it's actually just O...) (3333) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [opengl] Provide an option to disable NV extensions during codegen (3331) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [OpenGl] Support preprocessing glsl code in aot. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [OpenGl] Set result_buffer for opengl aot. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [vulkan] Fix GGUI (3330) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [misc] Port taichi to FreeBSD (3325) (by **Inoki**)
- [Refactor] Fix compiler warnings (3322) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- Fix GL Device (3315) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [Doc] Update dev install about m1. (3321) (by **Ailing**)
- [Lang] Support f-string (by **Jian Zeng**)
- [OpenGl] Merge Retr SSBO into Args. (3313) (by **Ailing**)
- [CI] Containerize CI (3291) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [vulkan] Release vulkan on macOS (3305) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [GUI] Fix re-use buffer bug in ggui (3311) (by **YuZhang**)
- [ci] Add Dockerfile to support minimum CPU (3277) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [Lang] Add suppress_warning argument to ti.matrix initialization (3310) (by **Zhehao Li**)
- Remove Vulkan SDK dependency (3307) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [Bug] Add missing integral datatype support for ti.min/ti.max (3248) (by **FantasyVR**)
- [opengl] Remove extra semicolon in glsl generated code. (3309) (by **Ailing**)
- Merge GLBufId::Extr into Args. (3306) (by **Ailing**)
- [opengl] Fix typo in printing glsl kernel. (3308) (by **Ailing**)
- [Doc] update the security email address (3297) (by **Manjusaka**)
- [opengl] Recover GLSL printing (3300) (by **Ye Kuang**)

Full changelog:
- [misc] Version bump: v0.8.3->v0.8.4 (3295) (by **rocket**)
- [refactor] Finalize root FieldsBuilder only when it is not finalized (3288) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [bug] Add default value to print_preprocessed_ir (3292) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [Doc] Correct the note about dev installation (3289) (by **Tianshu Xu**)
- [refactor] [misc] Refactoring benchmark code for performance monitoring (3269) (by **rocket**)
- [Lang] Support more SNode trees for LLVM backends (3279) (by **Chang Yu**)
- [Refactor] Taichi frontend AST builder without generating code (3037) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [ci] Reduce the artifacts retention duration to 20 days (3286) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [ir] [refactor] Remove ptr_if_global in C++ Expr class (3285) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [doc] Add using clang++ for submodules in dev install instructions (3273) (by **Mingrui Zhang**)
- Update sparse.md (3266) (by **rockeyshao**)
- [vulkan] Indexed load codegen (3259) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [opengl] Remove listgen support (3257) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [llvm] Separate compile_snode_tree_types from materialize_snode_tree in LLVM backends (3267) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Lang] Add element shape to Ndarray (3264) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- Update write_test.md (3263) (by **FantasyVR**)
- [ci] Add benchmark to postsubmit workflow (3220) (by **rocket**)
- [ci] Move extract zip into ci_download.py (3251) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [Lang] Fix string format not support keywords format (3256) (by **yihong**)
- [vulkan] Force u8 capability on Apple (3252) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [vulkan] Catch std::runtime_error from button_id_to_name/buttom_name_to_id. (3260) (by **0xzhang**)
- [cuda] Add CUDA version check (3249) (by **0xzhang**)
- Fix Vulkan GGUI on CPU rendering (swiftshaders) (3253) (by **Bob Cao**)
- fix int / uint types & fix atomic op type mismatches (3179) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [test] Fix unrecognized test names in test_bls_assume_in_range.py (3250) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [ci] Add non-root user and conda environment (3226) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [vulkan] Support for ti.u8 in vulkan (3247) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [lang] Make dynamic indexing compatible with BLS (3244) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Bug] Fix indentation error when using tab indents (3203) (by **YuZhang**)
- [Bug] Remove the dataclass decorator from CuptiMetric, as it is not supported in Python 3.6 (3246) (by **rocket**)
- [opt] Enable CFG optimization for local tensors (3237) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [bug] Fix silent int overflow in indice calculation. (3177) (by **Ailing**)
- [doc] Update build badges on readme file. (3235) (by **Chengchen(Rex) Wang**)
- [Bug] Fix the always-in-cpu from_numpy in ti.ndarray (3239) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [ci] Fix ti testing with no supported arch. (3236) (by **Ailing**)
- [refactor] Get rid of unnecessary snodes map. (3234) (by **Ailing**)
- [lang] Make dynamic indexing compatible with grouped loop indices of struct fors (3218) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Lang] Add a new transformation pass to rename module alias (3180) (by **Ce Gao**)
- [doc] Add doc string for _logging.py (3209) (by **0xzhang**)
- [Refactor] Improve the core module code and remove unused imports (3225) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [doc] Update docsite link (3232) (by **Yuanming Hu**)
- [vulkan] Enable GGUI for Vulkan Backend (3176) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [opengl] Decouple AOT builder from the runtime (3207) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [vulkan] Fix fence timeout (3229) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [lang] Make dynamic indexing compatible with grouped loop indices of ndrange fors (3228) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [lang] [opt] Memory allocator for ti.ndarray (3020) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [refactor] Optimize Expression::serialize (3221) (by **庄天翼**)
- [vulkan] Trying to fix external memory allocation (3222) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [doc] Remove the reference to libtinfo5 (3219) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- Constrain the python version in package metadata (3217) (by **Frost Ming**)
- [Example] Fix the ti example problems of sparse matrix demos (3215) (by **Jiafeng Liu**)
- Revert "[misc] Revert 3175 3164 (3185)" (3212) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [Lang] [bug] Fix support staticmethod decorator for data_oriented class (3186) (by **yihong**)
- [Doc] Update sparse_matrix.md (3200) (by **FantasyVR**)
- [Lang] Use ti.linalg.sparse_matrix_builder as kernel parameters (3210) (by **Jiafeng Liu**)
- [vulkan] Clear unnecessary GLSL shader files on Vulkan backend. (3211) (by **0xzhang**)
- [refactor] [CUDA] Add kernel attributes for KernelProfiler (3196) (by **rocket**)
- [refactor] [misc] Add device name for KernelProfiler (3194) (by **rocket**)
- [opengl] Make AOT builder independent of the runtime (3204) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [llvm] Fix llvm sparse when there are more than 1 snode trees (3205) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [opengl] OpenGL AOT Module Builder & Making GL CompiledProgram serializable (3202) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [Lang] Reuse sparse matrix builder (3199) (by **FantasyVR**)
- [ci] Fix ci shell scripts do not return error code (3189) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [Lang] Fixed pylint error C0121 (3135) (by **deepakdinesh1123**)
- [gui] Accept array of vectors as indices for lines and triangles (3181) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [vulkan] Fix some vulkan stuff (3198) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [refactor] Remove redundant code in snode_rw_accessors_bank (3192) (by **Yi Xu**)

Full changelog:
- [refactor] Rename nparray to external_array in Python-side (3191) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [misc] Version bump: v0.8.2->v0.8.3 (3188) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [misc] Revert 3175 3164 (3185) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [Doc] Improve the documentation for ODOP (3006) (by **ljcc0930**)
- [CUDA] Update CUPTI profiling toolkit, add NVPW_MetricsEvaluator and its APIs for CUDA_VERSION >= 11.4 (3172) (by **rocket**)
- fix (3175) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [vulkan] Isolate vulkan runtime (3164) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [bug] Fix the mapping from virtual axes to physical axes again (3170) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [ci] Move pytest/pylint out of runtime dep. (3169) (by **Ailing**)
- [ci] Move code_format.py out of taichi package. (3171) (by **Ailing**)
- [gui] Use Device API memcpy in GGUI (3163) (by **Dunfan Lu**)

Full changelog:
- [bug] Fix the mapping from virtual axes to physical axes (3159) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [ci] Get rid of requirements_lint.txt. (3161) (by **Ailing**)
- [ci] Enable macos 10.14 in release.yml wip. (3158) (by **Ailing**)
- [refactor] [CUDA] Add optional metrics for KernelProfiler in Python scope (3049) (by **rocket**)
- [misc] Fix build on macos 10.14. (3155) (by **Ailing**)
- [bug] Fix Cpu/CudaDevice memory deallocation bug (3157) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- Revert "[Bug] Fix argument shadowed when there is a local variable with the same name (3105)" (3153) (by **Ailing**)
- [Lang] Use ti.linalg.SparseMatrixBuilder as sparse matrix builder (3152) (by **FantasyVR**)
- [Doc] Add docstring and documents for sparse matrix (3119) (by **Jiafeng Liu**)
- [vulkan] Inter-device memcpy API (3137) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [Lang] Improve sparse matrix/solver API (3145) (by **FantasyVR**)
- Fix and cleanup GGUI examples (3144) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [ci] [vulkan] Upgrade Dockerfile to enable Vulkan tests (2970) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [Example] An implicit mass spring demo with sparse matrix (3116) (by **FantasyVR**)
- [misc] Version bump: v0.8.1->v0.8.2 (3149) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [refactor] Get rid of the indirection between KernelCodeGen::compile and KernelCodeGen::codegen. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [misc] Enable flushing when printing preprocessed ast. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [Bug] Throw proper error message when creating more than 32 snode trees in LLVM backend. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [Cuda] [opt] Fix duplicate shared memory allocation (3140) (by **Chang Yu**)
- [CI] Add pip cache (3139) (by **zstone12**)
- rgb_to_hex: fix typo and use bit operator instead of multiplication (3136) (by **gaoxinge**)
- [llvm] Establish a correspondence between SNodes and DevicePtr (3120) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [Metal] Support multiple SNode roots in codegen/runtime (3090) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [Autodiff] Throw proper error message for unsupported ti.random. (3131) (by **Ailing**)
- [test] Parametrize test_ad_basics.py (3129) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [ci] Fix sparse_solver for pylint. (3132) (by **Ailing**)
- [refactor] Enable user selected metrics for CUDA, remove print() method from class KernelProfiler (3048) (by **rocket**)
- [misc] Delete accidentally included spirv dump (3130) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [perf] Reduce SNodeTree materialization time in LLVM backends (3127) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [Lang] Move sparse matrix/solver into subfolder (3115) (by **FantasyVR**)
- [refactor] Enable pylint checking in ci and minor cleanup. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Move imports to the top level. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [vulkan] Make atomic helper functions inline (3118) (by **Chang Yu**)
- [perf] Constant folding optimization (3108) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [Bug] Fix argument shadowed when there is a local variable with the same name (3105) (by **lin-hitonami**)
- [ci] Add back fixes for github actions windows image upgrade. (3117) (by **Ailing**)
- [doc] Update dev install about develop/install. (3113) (by **Ailing**)
- [cuda] Remove unified memory allocator (3098) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [refactor] Make ext_arr/any_arr/template to taichi.type.annotations. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Make type annotations simple, remove dep on high level data structures. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [ci] Run shell scripts in CI (3034) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [Lang] Support chained assignments (3062) (by **Ce Gao**)
- [metal] Rearrange how KernelManager is initialized (3109) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [GUI] Add context manager support for ui.Gui (3055) (by **Xuanwo**)
- [Lang] [bug] Fix support property decorator for data_oriented class (3052) (by **yihong**)
- [refactor] Work around some cyclic imports. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Remove importing outside top level. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Stop overriding taichi.core from taichi/lang/impl.py. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [metal] Separate runtime and snodes initialization (3093) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [ci] Copy paste linux & windows fixes from presubmit to release. (3103) (by **Ailing**)
- [Doc] Add documentation for gui system and install trouble shooting. (2985) (by **Jiasheng Zhang**)
- [doc] Fix the link to the QuanTaichi paper in README.md (3102) (by **Yi Xu**)
- [doc] Remove docs subpath and update references across the codebase (3085) (by **Chengchen(Rex) Wang**)
- [Lang] Use more user-friendly exception when converting from numpy array (3058) (by **Ce Gao**)
- renable sfg test (3097) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [cuda] Disable unified memory and make CI pass (3067) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- [cuda] Fix a memory alignment bug in pre-allocated memory allocator (3096) (by **Dunfan Lu**)
- Fix minor bugs in GL Device (3091) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [metal] Pull out the Runtime MSL code into its own module (3086) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [Doc] Fix an example in the documentation for coordinate offsets (3089) (by **张皓**)
- [Example] A stable fluid demo with sparse matrix (3081) (by **Jiafeng Liu**)
- [doc] Add Vulkan into README.md (3088) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [refactor] Style police (3082) (by **Bob Cao**)
- [GUI] Extract the type casts of environment variables in misc.gui.gui into a reusable function (3065) (by **Dream Hunter**)
- [lang] Add a method to get all SNodes under a root (3083) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [Test] Allow `ti test` work with `-a cpu, cuda`. (3066) (by **Ailing**)
- [refactor] Move the AST utils into taichi.lang.ast (3063) (by **Ye Kuang**)
- [refactor] Get rid of settings.py. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Get rid of build and load_module. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Move primitive_types.py to type folder. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Move record.py out of ti.core. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [refactor] Move logging out of ti.core. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [ci] Try moving all torch tests to single thread. (by **Ailing Zhang**)
- [Doc] Update developer installation (3070) (by **Bo Qiao**)
- [Lang] Fix python AST print format issues in python/taichi/lang/transformer.py (3061) (by **Ce Gao**)
- [ci] Extend windows timeout. (3068) (by **Ailing**)
- [ci] Try fixing windows. (3064) (by **Ailing**)
- [Doc][autodiff] Add a section about customized gradient in autodiff. (3054) (by **Ailing**)
- [Doc] Update Type system (3043) (by **Tiantian Liu**)