hello world is back

_posts/2015-07-01-hello-world-again.md

@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+---
+layout: news
+author: Torsten
+---
+
+After almost a year of rewrite: **Hello World** is back.
+
+**Working executables again**
+
+So much has changed in the last year it is almost impossible to recap.
+Still a little summary:
+
+### Register Machine
+
+The whole layer of the [Register Machine](/2014/09/30/a-better-register-machine.html) as an
+abstraction was not there. Impossible is was to see what was happening.
+
+### Passes
+
+In the beginning i was trying to *just do it*. Just compile the vm down to arm instructions.
+But the human brain (or possibly just mine) is not made to think in terms of process.
+I think much better in terms of Structure. So i made vm and register instructions and
+[implemented Passes](/2014/07/05/layers-vs-passes.html) to go between them.
+
+### The virtual machine design
+
+Thinking about what objects makes up a virtual machine has brought me to a clear understanding
+of the [objects needed](/2014/09/12/register-allocation-reviewed.html).
+In fact things got even simpler as stated in that post, as i have
+[stopped using the machine stack](/2014/06/27/an-exceptional-thought.html)
+altogether and am using a linked list instead.
+Recently is has occurred to me that that linked list
+[doesn't even change](/06/20/the-static-call-chain.html), so it is very simple indeed.
+
+### Smaller, though not small, changes
+
+- The [Salma Object File](/2014/08/19/object-storage.html) format was created.
+- The [Book](http://dancinglightning.gitbooks.io/the-object-machine/content/) was started
+- I gave lightning talks at Frozen Rails 2014, Helsinki and Bath Ruby 2015
+- I presented at Munich and Zurich user groups, lots to take home from all that
+
+### Future
+
+The mountain is still oh so high, but at last there is hope again. The second dip into arm
+(gdb) debugging has made it very clear that a debugger is needed. Preferably visual, possibly 3d,
+definitely browser based. So either Opal or even Volt.
+
+Already more clarity in upcoming fields has arrived:
+
+- inlining is high on the list, to code in higher language
+- the difference between [statement and expression](/2015/05/20/expression-is-slot.html) helped
+  to structure code.
+- hopefully the debugger / interpreter will help to write better tests too.