Parrot -- "one bytecode to rule them all"

”one bytecode to rule them all”

Nuno Carvalho <[email protected]>

Portuguese Perl Workshop 2008

Portuguese Perl Workshop 2008 Parrot ”one bytecode to rule them all”

Overview

Definition

Parrot is a virtual machine designed to compile and executebytecode for dynamic languages.

Parrot is a register-based, bytecode-driven, object-oriented,dynamically typed, self-modifying, asynchronous interpreter.

initially created to run Perl6

Core Design Principles

stability

abstraction

Overview

Definition

Parrot is a virtual machine designed to compile and executebytecode for dynamic languages.

Parrot is a register-based, bytecode-driven, object-oriented,dynamically typed, self-modifying, asynchronous interpreter.

initially created to run Perl6

Core Design Principles

stability

abstraction

Insight

Software CPU

register based (four type of registers)

also uses stacks

no operands limit to opcodes

Core Data Types

integers

strings

floating-point

PMCs (Parrot Magic Cookie)

Insight

Software CPU

register based (four type of registers)

also uses stacks

no operands limit to opcodes

Core Data Types

integers

strings

floating-point

PMCs (Parrot Magic Cookie)

Insight

Some Interesting Features

complex object and class model system

exception handling

events (signals)

garbage collection

MMD (Multi Method Dispatching)

multiple concurrency models

unicode support

Parrot’s Architecture

Interpretation Flow

PASM, PIR And PBC

Parrot Assembly

traditional low-level features

also has advanced features

lexical, global variables, objects, etc

Parrot Intermediate Representation

high level features

named variables, etc

it still isn’t a HLL

Parrot Bytecode

sequence of instructions in a binary format

PASM, PIR And PBC

Parrot Assembly

high level features

Parrot Bytecode

PASM, PIR And PBC

Parrot Assembly

high level features

Parrot Bytecode

Code Samples

lt P0,10,branchset I2,P0dec P0

cost = minimum(a,b,c)matrix[i;j] = costj += 1if j <= n goto inner_cycle

Code Samples

lt P0,10,branchset I2,P0dec P0

cost = minimum(a,b,c)matrix[i;j] = costj += 1if j <= n goto inner_cycle

Get Your Feet Wet

Checking Out

~$ svn co https://svn.perl.org/parrot/trunk parrot

Building

~/parrot$ perl Configure.pl~/parrot$ make

Testing

~/parrot$ make test

Get Your Feet Wet

Checking Out

Building

Testing

~/parrot$ make test

Get Your Feet Wet

Checking Out

Building

Testing

~/parrot$ make test

’Hello world!’

hello.pir

.sub hello :mainsay ’Hello world!’

linux x86

$ ./parrot hello.pirHello world!

hello.pbc

$ ./parrot --output-pbc --output=hello.pbc \hello.pir

$ ./parrot hello.pbc

’Hello world!’

hello.pir

linux x86

hello.pbc

’Hello world!’

hello.pir

linux x86

hello.pbc

Simple Benchmark

Parrot Compiler Toolkit

Set of powerfull tools and engines that are used to quickly andeasily craft compilers for Parrot.

”There’s an odd misconception in the computing world that writingcompilers is hard. This view is fueled by the fact that we don’twrite compilers very often. People used to think writing CGI codewas hard. Well, it is hard, if you do it in C without any tools.”

by Allison Randall

Set of powerfull tools and engines that are used to quickly andeasily craft compilers for Parrot.

”There’s an odd misconception in the computing world that writingcompilers is hard. This view is fueled by the fact that we don’twrite compilers very often. People used to think writing CGI codewas hard. Well, it is hard, if you do it in C without any tools.”

by Allison Randall

Interpretation Flow

Four stages of PCT based compilers

1 source to parse tree

2 parse tree to PAST

3 PAST to POST

4 POST to PIR

Parrot Abstract Syntax Tree

abstract syntax tree nodes that represent common languageconstructs

Parrot Opcode Syntax Tree

lower abstraction level

each node represents a instruction or label

Interpretation Flow

3 PAST to POST

4 POST to PIR

Interpretation Flow

3 PAST to POST

4 POST to PIR

Create A New Language

Create Files

$ perl tools/dev/mk_language_shell.pl mspcreating languages/msp/config/makefiles/creating languages/msp/config/makefiles/root.increating languages/msp/msp.pir(...)$ ls languages/msp/config Makefile msp.pir src t

$ cd languages/msp$ make$ make test(...)All tests successful.

Create A New Language

Create Files

$ perl tools/dev/mk_language_shell.pl mspcreating languages/msp/config/makefiles/creating languages/msp/config/makefiles/root.increating languages/msp/msp.pir(...)$ ls languages/msp/config Makefile msp.pir src t

$ cd languages/msp$ make$ make test(...)All tests successful.

Running Your Compiler

Execute a script

$ ../../parrot msp.pbc script.msp

Run in interactive mode

$ ../../parrot msp.pbcmsp version 0.1

Default compilation trees

$ ../../parrot msp.pbc --target=parse script.msp

$ ../../parrot msp.pbc --target=past script.msp

$ ../../parrot msp.pbc --target=post script.msp

$ ../../parrot msp.pbc --target=pir script.msp

Execute a script

Extending Your Language

grammar.pg

rule say_statement {’say’ <value> [ ’,’ <value> ]* ’;’ {*}

actions.pm

method say_statement($/) {my $past := PAST::Op.new( :name(’say’),

:pasttype(’call’), :node( $/ ) );for $<value> {

$past.push( $( $_ ) );}make $past;

grammar.pg

rule say_statement {’say’ <value> [ ’,’ <value> ]* ’;’ {*}

actions.pm

method say_statement($/) {my $past := PAST::Op.new( :name(’say’),

:pasttype(’call’), :node( $/ ) );for $<value> {

$past.push( $( $_ ) );}make $past;

grammar.pg

rule if_statement {’if’ <expression> ’then’ <block> ’;’ {*}

actions.pm

method if_statement($/) {my $cond := $( $<expression> );my $then := $( $<block> );my $past := PAST::Op.new( $cond, $then,

:pasttype(’if’),:node($/) );

make $past;}

grammar.pg

rule if_statement {’if’ <expression> ’then’ <block> ’;’ {*}

actions.pm

method if_statement($/) {my $cond := $( $<expression> );my $then := $( $<block> );my $past := PAST::Op.new( $cond, $then,

:pasttype(’if’),:node($/) );

make $past;}

Final Notes

Conclusion

Parrot is a virtual machine

target multiple languages (or brand new)

implement Perl6 (rakudo)

It’s a work in progress.

Final Notes

Conclusion

Parrot is a virtual machine

target multiple languages (or brand new)

implement Perl6 (rakudo)

It’s a work in progress.

Questions

http://www.parrotcode.org/

Parrot -- "one bytecode to rule them all"

Technology

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