Highlights:

• AOT
  • Add a generic set of AOT structs (#3973) (by Ye Kuang)
  • Switch vulkan aot to use taichi::aot::ModuleData. (by Ailing Zhang)
  • Convert opengl aot to dump ModuleData. (#3991) (by Ailing)
• Language and syntax
  • Use FrontendExprStmt in place of FrontendEvalStmt (#3978) (by daylily)
  • Get global vars by using globals (#3949) (by Lin Jiang)
  • Support static short circuit bool operations (#3958) (by Lin Jiang)
  • Experimental automatic mesh_local (#3989) (by Chang Yu)
  • Support nested mesh-for (#3990) (by Chang Yu)
• Performance
  • Accelerate whole_kernel_cse pass (#3957) (by Xiangyun Yang)
  • Get rid of some no-ops in linear seek (by Ailing Zhang)
  • Reduce kernel launch context construction overhead (#3947) (by Haidong Lan)
  • Refactor func body to reduce python overhead and improve readability (#3984) (by Haidong Lan)
  • Get store_to_load_forwarding work with local tensors across basic blocks (#3942) (by Yi Xu)
• Documentations
  • Update Docs preview settings. (#4021) (by Chengchen(Rex) Wang)
  • Add doc for compile-time recursion (#3994) (by Lin Jiang)
  • Add an operation page (#4004) (by Bo Qiao)
  • Improve type system documentation (#4002) (by Bo Qiao)
• Error messages
  • Add TaichiTypeError (#3964) (by Lin Jiang)
  • Produce a warning when users call external functions (#4007) (by Lin Jiang)
  • Shorten the length of traceback of TaichiCompilationError (#3965) (by Lin Jiang)
  • Raise exception when encountering undefined name (#3951) (by Lin Jiang)
• Bug fixes
  • Fix bug that building with TI_WITH_LLVM=OFF will fail (#4043) (by PGZXB)
  • Treat PtrOffsetStmt as random-initialized (#3998) (by Yi Xu)
  • GGUI imwrite BGRA to RGBA conversion (#4018) (by Bob Cao)

Full changelog:

• [bug] Fix bug that building with TI_WITH_LLVM=OFF will fail (#4043) (by PGZXB)
• [doc] Improve type system documentation (#4002) (by Bo Qiao)
• [Error] Add error message when non-0d numpy ndarray is given to initialize expression (#4030) (by Lin Jiang)
• [Error] Produce a warning when users call external functions (#4007) (by Lin Jiang)
• [aot] Use element_shape instead of row_num & column_num for CompiledFieldData. (by Ailing Zhang)
• [vulkan] [aot] Switch vulkan aot to use taichi::aot::ModuleData. (by Ailing Zhang)
• [vulkan] Fix gtmp type (#4042) (by Bob Cao)
• [doc] Add an operation page (#4004) (by Bo Qiao)
• [ir] [refactor] Split stmt typechecking to the frontend (#3875) (by daylily)
• [build] Disable LTO for mac. (#4027) (by Ailing)
• [autodiff] Restrict Independent Block scope for cases with atomic operations on global variables (#3897) (by Mingrui Zhang)
• [gui] GGUI imwrite BGRA to RGBA conversion (#4018) (by Bob Cao)
• [test] [example] Add a test and a video generator for mpm99 (#3995) (by Yi Xu)
• [doc] [ci] Update Docs preview settings. (#4021) (by Chengchen(Rex) Wang)
• [vulkan] [aot] Throw error for templated kernels in vulkan aot. (by Ailing Zhang)
• [bug] [opt] Treat PtrOffsetStmt as random-initialized (#3998) (by Yi Xu)
• [ci] Keep macOS actions run on macOS-10.15 (#4014) (by rocket)
• [vulkan] [aot] Enable aot tests for vulkan backend. (#4000) (by Ailing)
• [mesh] [opt] Experimental automatic mesh_local (#3989) (by Chang Yu)
• [doc] Add doc for compile-time recursion (#3994) (by Lin Jiang)
• [refactor] [opengl] Get rid of some no-ops in linear seek (by Ailing Zhang)
• [opengl] Do not promote simple ExternalTensorShapeAlongAxisStmt into globals. (by Ailing Zhang)
• [build] Upgrade SPIRV-Headers and SPIRV-Tools to their latest commits (#3967) (by PGZXB)
• [opengl] [aot] Convert opengl aot to dump ModuleData. (#3991) (by Ailing)
• [mesh] Support multiple major relations in one mesh-for loop (#3987) (by Chang Yu)
• [refactor] Refactor func body to reduce python overhead and improve readability (#3984) (by Haidong Lan)
• [opt] Add more strict alias analysis for ExternalPtrStmt (#3992) (by Ailing)
• [opt] Accelerate whole_kernel_cse pass (#3957) (by Xiangyun Yang)
• [mesh] [opt] Support nested mesh-for (#3990) (by Chang Yu)
• [Lang] Provide sparse matrix shape (#3959) (by Peng Yu)
• [refactor] Remove dependency on get_current_program() in backends/cpu and backends/cuda (#3956) (by PGZXB)
• [mesh] Demote from-end element attribute atomic op (#3923) (by Chang Yu)
• [ci] Support rebase and rerun command in comment for CI bot (#3952) (by Frost Ming)
• [refactor] [ci] Enable identifier naming in clang-tidy (#3960) (by Bo Qiao)
• [refactor] [ir] Use FrontendExprStmt in place of FrontendEvalStmt (#3978) (by daylily)
• [example] [test] Fix misuse of logical operators in examples and tests (#3976) (by Yi Xu)
• [Error] Shorten the length of traceback of TaichiCompilationError (#3965) (by Lin Jiang)
• [aot] Add a generic set of AOT structs (#3973) (by Ye Kuang)
• [Error] Add TaichiTypeError (#3964) (by Lin Jiang)
• [aot] Add task_type for OpenGL (#3962) (by Ye Kuang)
• [Error] Raise exception when encountering undefined name (#3951) (by Lin Jiang)
• [misc] [cuda] Set the toolkit used by KernelProfiler at runtime (#3945) (by rocket)
• [refactor] Get global vars by using globals (#3949) (by Lin Jiang)
• [refactor] Support static short circuit bool operations (#3958) (by Lin Jiang)
• [perf] [refactor] Reduce kernel launch context construction overhead (#3947) (by Haidong Lan)
• [refactor] Move python/taichi/lang/meta.py to python/taichi/_kernels.py (by Ailing Zhang)
• [refactor] Remove import taichi in taichi/lang/impl.py (by Ailing Zhang)
• [refactor] Remove ndarray_use_torch from pybind (#3946) (by Bo Qiao)
• [ci] Test opengl backend on windows (#3924) (by Frost Ming)
• [Error] Do not show body in exceptions in nodes with body (#3940) (by Lin Jiang)
• [opt] Get store_to_load_forwarding work with local tensors across basic blocks (#3942) (by Yi Xu)
• [refactor] [ir] Remove legacy stmts from CHI IR (#3943) (by Yi Xu)
• [Error] Shorten the length of traceback of exceptions thrown by ASTTransformer (#3873) (by lin-hitonami)
• [misc] Version bump: v0.8.9 -> v0.8.10 (#3935) (by Bo Qiao)