[Ecls-list] New compiler

[worm]

[This is the third time I try to submit this to SourceForge. Anyone else
experiences problems with the mailing list?]

Hi,

this weekend I intended to work on the missing FFI:DEFENTRY (If you
remember from previous e-mails, DEFENTRY allows one to declare a C
function in a lisp file; it appears in the documentation, but it is
missing from ECL!).

In doing so, I realized that everything would be much easier if we had a
new special form with syntax

(C-INLINE (arg1 ... argn) (c-type-1 ... c-type-n) output-c-type
        "C code with arguments as #[number] and lisp objects as
@[lispobject"
        :side-effects {t | n}
        :one-liner {t | n})

This form can appear anywhere in the code, and it defines a piece of C
code that takes lisp values as arguments and outputs some C value (which
is automatically converted to lisp, of course).

With such a special form, DEFENTRY, DEFCBODY, etc, become macros, and
not part of the compiler itself. Everything much easier for me! :-)

This weekend I have worked out an implementation for C-INLINE, and in
doing so I have made huge changes in the way the ECL compiler
understands types. Now, for each form there are two types, a lisp type
and a representation type. Thus, 125 belongs to (SIGNED-BYTE 8), but it
can be represented internally (that is, in compiled code), as a :object
(Lisp representation!), :long,:int, :unsigned-int, :unsigned-byte,
:byte, etc. Type names follow the conventions in UFFI.

The current implementation is slow, and it has already revealed some
problems in the previous version of the compiler (For instance, the
optimizer for CASE and ECASE, which have been now removed from the
code). On the other hand, I expect better optimizations to be possible.

The status of CVS is, right now:
+ The trunk of the tree has been tagged ECL_0_9, and keeps the stable
version.
+ A branch has been created, with name NEW_COMPILER, which contains the
latest developments. It is unstable in the sense of being rather
untested, but it passes all regression tests.

The NEW_COMPILER branch contains the changes to the compiler
type-inference scheme, variable creation and management, and the
C-INLINE routine. DEFENTRY has to be rewritten, as well as DEFCBODY and
similar ones. Expect this to happen in a couple of days.

Besides, preliminary support for run-time foreign data creation and
manipulation "a la" UFFI has been included. But this still is a long way
far from completion (i.e. there is support for foreign-data in the
garbage collector, but the library does not yet allow data to be
retrieved out of or inserted into these foreign-data areas).

I would really like people to test this and provide feedback. It is now
to suggest improvements, complain about current syntax, etc.

Juanjo

-- 
Max-Planck-Institut fuer Quantenoptik   +49/089/32905-345
Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, D-85748         www.arrakis.es/~worm
Garching b. Muenchen, Germany           worm at arrakis.es