micro ML/lisp to C isn't too involved, really!
1. Convert to continuation-passing style (or ANF)
2. Perform closure conversion
3. Hoisting nested functions/lambda lifting
4. Generate C! (and then write a runtime/GC).
Targeting lua should be much easier
Re:Chumsky: A Tutorial
by throw10920 on Tuesday April 12, 2022 @05:58PM
(#31008737)
Where can one read about these steps in an easily-digestible format?
Unfortunately, I haven't found a ton of "easily-digestible" and, at the same time, comprehensive guides on compiling functional languages. Generally you'll find a mix of blog posts/class notes/papers covering a single step.
Some resources I like:
- Andrew Kennedy's 2007 paper Compiling with Continuations, Continued [1]. This one is the most clear IMO
- Andrew Appel's Compiling with Continuations book (a bit outdated though... assembly code is for VAX)
- Matt Might's series [2]
- MLton's source and documentation [3]
[1] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...
Take your pick: https://github.com/hengestone/lua-languages
Re:Chumsky: A Tutorial
by giraffe_lady on Tuesday April 12, 2022 @05:58PM
(#31008734)
I spent a few hours with this list a few weeks ago and nah. They're all abandoned, or undocumented, or incomplete, or target luajit, or intensely nonstandard, or surface the underlying lua behavior I'm trying to avoid. Usually a mix of some of those.
The lisp ones look solid and I love lisp, but for this specific thing a good type system would be most valuable.
Was considering what it would take to write a small ML that compiles to lua. "Almost certainly more than I'm willing to put in" was my tentative unresearched conclusion but this validates it a bit.