Fwd: [Newcompiler] Status of the NewCompiler

> From: Marcus Denker <[hidden email]>
> Date: April 1, 2007 1:32:14 AM CEDT
> To: "Closures... The New Compiler AST IRBuilder"  
> <[hidden email]>
> Subject: [Newcompiler] Status of the NewCompiler
> Reply-To: "The New Compiler, AST, IRBuilder, Closures..."  
> <[hidden email]>
>
> Hello,
>
> Last summer/fall, Mathieu Suen worked (as part of the ESUG  
> SummerTalk) on the NewCompiler framework.
>
> He added
> -> Support for literalVariable read/write bytecode
> -> Human readable Error Messages for the Parser that say more then  
> "SmaCCParserError".
> -> Support for Squeak 3.9 Pragmas / A solution for parsing  
> primitives (which used the old parser with
>              nobody realizing it... ;-) )
>         -> An experiment for a Smalltalk Scripting Language's  
> parser (Saphire)
> -> Many of smaller and larger bugfixes and improvements
>
> Thanks a lot!
>
> The NewCompiler framework has been used in many projects, both at  
> SCG and elsewhere.
>
> Next things on the TODO
> ====================
>
> Bugs
> -------
>
> - variables in the debugger seem to be not work correctly when  
> selecting them for a doit / inspect it.
> - in the debugger make "debug it" work. See ParagraphEditor>>#debugIt.
> - fix debugIt to not compile a #doit method but use the same  
> mechanism as #doIt.
> - instVar vs. Field in IRBuilder. Something is very  not nice here.  
> We should provide both concepts.
> - Fix Compiler IR-->RBNode decompile
> - Make to Block primitives work for BlockClosure so that exceptions  
> (#ifCurtailed:, ...) work
>
> Enhancements
> --------------
>
> - Integrate RB with Newcompiler Parser.
> -- step one: Put Parser into it's own package (NewParser)... or  
> the AST package
> -- step two: remove RBParser, check/ fix RefactoringEngine
> -  work-around for bytecode limitations (jump offsett, number of  
> temps, number of literals ...) in IRBuilder
>    (see http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2006- 
> February/100691.html)
> - Look at optimizing the Closures generated by the compiler. VM  
> hacking included.
> - VMmaker code generator should use RB AST
>
>
> Documentation
> ------------
> - We need websites for AST, RB, SmaCC, NewCompiler
> -- Write Hitchhikers Guide to the New Compiler:
>   http://www.whysmalltalk.com/articles/bykov/HitchHiker.htm
>   But then, these examples are even simpler to realise with  
> Persphone/Geppetto aka. "The Reflectivity"...
> -- IRBuilder: comments for public method, provide documentation  
> for stack effects
> - Better bugtracker. At least I loose track of the Mantis bugs very  
> easily. Can't it
>   generate emails to this list? Maybe use Roundup like Reflectivity  
> and Moose?
>   (http://macamis.unibe.ch/trackers)
>