[Haskell-cafe] I want to write a compiler

[Ryan Ingram]

I really like this book:

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/papers/pj-lester-book/

It walks you through building a compiler to a reasonable intermediate
language, which you can then start with; it's is a much easier problem
to convert that intermediate langauge to assembly, C, or LLVM.

  -- ryan

On Sat, Mar 7, 2009 at 5:20 PM, Jeremy Shaw <jeremy at n-heptane.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> This book is pretty good IMO:
>
> http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/papers/slpj-book-1987/
>
> It does not cover STG, but it does cover a ton of useful stuff and is
> very well written.
>
> I can say from experience that the spineless-tagless-gmachine paper
> you referenced does contain all the information needed to implement an
> STG->C compiler. But, you should expect to spend a lot of time
> alternating between trying to implement the thing and rereading the
> paper.
>
> Also, you may find that it is easier to do STG->Assembly at first (via
> harpy or something). With assembly it is easier to express exactly
> what you want to happen. With C you have to try to figure out how to
> trick the C compiler into doing your bidding.
>
> Also, maybe it is more satisfying to output assembly, because then you
> really feel like you are writing a compiler ;)
>
> I am sure others will say that LLVM is a better option than C or
> assembly. I know almost nothing about LLVM, so they may be right.
>
> -- jeremy
>
> At Sun, 8 Mar 2009 01:32:48 +0200,
> Loup Vaillant wrote:
>>
>> This is a homework question. I am mainly looking for guidance or
>> pointers. Source code, even. (Not GHC's, though, it is too complicated
>> for me right now. The AST of STG is fine, but the rest kinda scares
>> me.)
>>
>> Ideally, I would very much like to compile to C.
>>
>> The requirements are easily stated. My language must
>> -> be lazy by default,
>> -> support algebraic data types and case expressions (unless I can get
>> away with encoding them as functions),
>> -> have some kind of FFI with C (I suppose it imply some support for
>> unboxed values).
>>
>> There is also the first class functions thing, but lambda lifting is okay.
>>
>> I don't care about any kind of execution efficiency. I just want my
>> compiler to be As Simple As Possible. Eventually, I intend to
>> bootstrap. Then, I will start dreaming about doing better than the
>> Mighty Simons. (I can dream, right?)
>>
>> I figured I would start by the back-end. I began to write 15 pathetic
>> lines of code to start an STG machine. Needles to say, I am stuck. I
>> don't know where to start.
>>
>> I am already familiar with some papers. In particular, [1] (on
>> template instantiation), [2] and [3]. I once wrote a simple graph
>> reducer using template instantiation (about 20 lines at most).
>>
>> I have chosen the STG machine because I thought i would be easier to
>> get an FFI and case exprs out of it. Maybe I am wrong, and template
>> instantiation is really easier. There is also the BRISK machine, and
>> GRIN. But the paper I read were less readable to me than the three
>> mentioned.
>>
>> So, If any of you can give me some pointer or guidance or advice about
>> where to start, I would be very grateful.
>>
>> Loup
>>
>>
>> [1] http://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/cosc459/books/pjlester.pdf
>> [2] http://research.microsoft.com/~simonpj/Papers/spineless-tagless-gmachine.ps.gz
>> [3] http://research.microsoft.com/~simonpj/Papers/eval-apply/index.htm
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