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I wish something like this existed for garbage-collected languages. The closest thing I know of is the JVM (and other similar VMs), but I'm hoping for ahead-of

I wish something like this existed for garbage-collected languages. The closest thing I know of is the JVM (and other similar VMs), but I'm hoping for ahead-of-time compilation. The key difficulty in adding garbage collection to code emitted with tools like this is being able to accurately tell what the root set is. (I know LLVM has support for this in theory, but I have found nothing that tells how to actually use it)

jeremyjh 6y ago
There are LLVM backed languages that provide garbage collection; Julia and Crystal are the first two that come to mind. Haskell also has an LLVM back-end.
biryani_chicken 6y ago
Something like the CIL[0]? I know there was a python and a ruby implementation on top of it. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Intermediate_Language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Intermediate_Language
- csharptwdec19 6y ago
  That's about viable nowadays. Elaborating: Until recently, your best option for running CIL in an AOT type environment would be Mono AOT, which has it's own limitations. Nowadays, however, we do have CoreRT in a state that lets you do AOT, still with limitations around things like reflection. But, it's fairly doable nowadays, I would think.
erlend_sh 6y ago
The Mu Micro Virtual Machine might interest you: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25278568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25278568
yarg 6y ago
There's a version of the JDK that provides AOT.
yarg 6y ago
https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/15/docs/specs/man/jaotc.html https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/15/docs/specs/man/jao... I thought this wasn't universally available (that it was only in a special version of the JDK - https://openjdk.java.net/projects/graal/ https://openjdk.java.net/projects/graal/). But it appears to be everywhere, albeit experimentally.
lostmsu 6y ago
I wish there would be pure .NET project, that at least matched QBE. Garbage collection would be interesting to tinker on top of it.

jeremyjh 6y ago

There are LLVM backed languages that provide garbage collection; Julia and Crystal are the first two that come to mind. Haskell also has an LLVM back-end.

biryani_chicken 6y ago

Something like the CIL[0]? I know there was a python and a ruby implementation on top of it. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Intermediate_Language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Intermediate_Language

csharptwdec19 6y ago
That's about viable nowadays. Elaborating: Until recently, your best option for running CIL in an AOT type environment would be Mono AOT, which has it's own limitations. Nowadays, however, we do have CoreRT in a state that lets you do AOT, still with limitations around things like reflection. But, it's fairly doable nowadays, I would think.

erlend_sh 6y ago

The Mu Micro Virtual Machine might interest you: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25278568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25278568

yarg 6y ago

There's a version of the JDK that provides AOT.

yarg 6y ago

https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/15/docs/specs/man/jaotc.html https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/15/docs/specs/man/jao... I thought this wasn't universally available (that it was only in a special version of the JDK - https://openjdk.java.net/projects/graal/ https://openjdk.java.net/projects/graal/). But it appears to be everywhere, albeit experimentally.

lostmsu 6y ago

I wish there would be pure .NET project, that at least matched QBE. Garbage collection would be interesting to tinker on top of it.