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langs
- How does the compiler know that an already typedefed ident is meant to be a new declarator?
- What makes a language easy for writing a parser?
- Automatic import of C headers —how to deal with macros?
- Register Window in a Stack VM Interpreter
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A challenge: 52 languages in 52 weeks
Well, I only wrote a few dozen lines in each. (Those benchmarks I wrote are here, all in one file; scroll through to find them. Those two will be at the end.
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'Switch' and 'Computed Goto'
Next I tried writing a custom C program just for the VM execute function; mostly this was a framework machine-generated from my interpreter, with the handlers necessary filled in manually.
This is my doswitch/u-based test program, a mini-interpreter executing a loop.
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Is it possible to optimize this bytecode interpreter more?
Actually the next thing I did after trying svm.c was to port it to my systems language to see how my compiler managed with it. (Source is here.)
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Where are the C Alternatives?
I have taken something away from Forth which is the (a--b) notation that describes the stack behaviour. I use it in these early docs of my IL here.
- Langception IV: I wrote BASIC in Charm, which I also wrote.
Cwerg
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Cwerg: C-like language that can be implemented in 10kLOC
Perhaps these have already been dealt with and I'm missing critical information. If so, my apologies. Great work, in any case.
[1] https://github.com/robertmuth/Cwerg/tree/master/FrontEnd#dis...
Somer examples are here:
https://github.com/robertmuth/Cwerg/tree/master/FrontEnd/Con...
This section contains a list of features that are unlikely to be added to the Cwerg backend:
https://github.com/robertmuth/Cwerg?tab=readme-ov-file#inten...
If you can live without them, it can be a replacement for LLVM.
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Where can I find resources and guides on how to build compiler backends?
Cwerg has backend that can be used as JIT and is written with readability in mind. Additional documentation can be found here: https://github.com/robertmuth/Cwerg/tree/master/Docs
- Most important language features not touched in the book "Crafting Interpreters"?
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How do you design a compiler and a language?
entire compiler front end ast nodes
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Syntax Design
I was also going down the path of bike shedding concrete syntax for my language Cwerg before pulling the plug on that effort and just using s-exprs. I managed to make the s-expr quite succinct by carefully choosing the order of arguments so I can omit optional ones. Also very helpful was to use square brackets for list, e.g. (call fun-name [arg1 arg2]). This simplifies parsing a little bit and is easier on the eye. Here are some Code Examples
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November 2022 monthly "What are you working on?" thread
I am iterating over the languages features for Cwerg's Frontend which aims to be a low level language with about the complexity of C but with some of the comforts of modern languages. I am especially happy with the choice of adding sum types. Relative to C the current feature set looks like this: Removed: * arrays decay to pointers * bitfields * separate compilation (more of a backend issue) * pre-processor * varargs * implcit type conversions * (untagged) unions * ++/-- * comma operator * implicitly nullable pointers * goto
- Features Compendium
What are some alternatives?
prolog-to-minizinc - A Prolog-to-MiniZinc translator
mir - A lightweight JIT compiler based on MIR (Medium Internal Representation) and C11 JIT compiler and interpreter based on MIR
tinycc - Unofficial mirror of mob development branch
rakudo - 🦋 Rakudo – Raku on MoarVM, JVM, and JS
zig - General-purpose programming language and toolchain for maintaining robust, optimal, and reusable software.
vox - Vox language compiler. AOT / JIT / Linker. Zero dependencies
asmjit - Low-latency machine code generation
bluebird - A work-in-progess programming language modeled after Ada and C++
wabt - The WebAssembly Binary Toolkit
asmdb - Instructions database and utilities for X86/X64 and ARM (THUMB/A32/A64) architectures.
factor - Factor programming language
boring-lang - A very boring programming language