153 lines
8.7 KiB
HTML
153 lines
8.7 KiB
HTML
---
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layout: salama
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title: Salama architectural layers
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---
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<div class="row span10">
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<h4>Main Layers</h4>
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<p>
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To implement an object system to execute object oriented languages takes a large system.
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The parts or abstraction layers are detailed below.</br>
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It is important to undrstand the approach first though, as it differs from the normal
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interpretation. The idea is to compile (eg) ruby. It may be easiest to compare to a static
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object oriented language like c++. When c++ was created c++ code was translated into c, which
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then gets translated into assembler, which gets translated to binary code, which is linked
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and executed. Compiling to binaries is what gives these languages speed, and is one reason
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to compile ruby. </br>
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In a similar way to the c++ example, we need language between ruby and assembler, as it is too
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big a mental step from ruby to assembler. Off course course one could try to compile to c, but
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since c is not object oriented that would mean dealing with all off c's non oo heritance, like
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linking model, memory model, calling convention etc. (more on this in the book) <br/>
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The layers are:
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<ul>
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<li> <b> Binary and cpu specific assembler.</b> This includes arm assembly and elf support
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to produce a binary that can then read in ruby programs</li>
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<li> <b> Risc register machine abstraction </b> provides a level of machine abstraction, but
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as the name says, quite a simle one.</li>
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<li> <b> Soml, Salama object machine language, </b> which is like our object c. Statically
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typed object oriented with object oriented call sematics. </li>
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<li> <b> Salama </b> , which is the layer compiling ruby code into soml and includes
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bootstraping code</li>
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</ul>
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</p>
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</div>
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<div class="row span10">
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<h5>Binary , Arm and Elf</h5>
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<p>
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A physical machine will run binaries containing intructions that the cpu understands. With arm
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being our main target, this means we need code to produce binary, which is contained in a
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seperate module <a href="https://github.com/salama/salama-arm"> salama-arm </a>. <br/>
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To be able to run code on a unix based operating system, binaries need to be packaged in a
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way that the os understands, so minimal elf support is included in the package. <br/>
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Arm is a risc architecture, but anyone who knows it will attest, with it's own quirks.
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For example any instruction may be executed conditionally in arm. Or there is no 32bit
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register load instruction. It is possible to create very dense code using all the arm
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special features, but this is not implemented yet.
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</p>
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</div>
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<div class="row span10">
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<h5>Register Machine</h5>
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<p>
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The Register machine layer is a relatively close abstraction of risc hardware, but without the
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quirks.
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<br/>
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The register machine has registers, indexed addressing, operators, branches and everything
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needed for the next layer. It doesn not try to abstract every possible machine leature
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(like llvm), but rather "objectifies" the risc view to provide what is needed for soml, the
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next layer up.
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<br/>
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The machine has it's own (abstract) instruction set, and the mapping to arm is quite
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straightforward. Since the instruction set is implemented as derived classes, additional
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instructions may be defined and used later, as long as translation is provided for them too.
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In other words the instruction set is extensible (unlike cpu instruction sets).
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</p>
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<p>
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Basic object oriented concepts are needed already at this level, to be able to generate a whole
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self contained system. Ie what an object is, a class, a method etc. This minimal runtime is called
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parfait and will be coded in soml eventually. But since it is the same objects at runtime and
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compile time, it will then be translated back to ruby for use at compile time. Currenty there
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are two versions of the code, in ruby and soml, being hand synchronized. More about parfait below.
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</p>
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<p>
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Since working with at this low machine level (essentially assembler) is not easy to follow for
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everyone, an interpreter was created. Later a graphical interface, a kind of
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<a href="https://github.com/salama/salama-debugger"> visual debugger </a> was added.
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Visualizing the control flow and being able to see values updated immediately helped
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tremendously in creating this layer. And the interpreter helps in testing, ie keeping it
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working in the face of developer change.
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</p>
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</div>
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<div class="row span10">
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<h5>Soml, Salama object machine language</h5>
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<p>
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Soml is probably the larest single part of the system and much more information can be found
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<a href="/soml/soml.html"> here </a>.
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<br/>
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Before soml, a more traditional virtual machine approach was taken and abandoned. The language
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is easy to understand and provides a good abstraction, both in terms of object orienteation,
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and in terms of how this is expressed in the register model. <br/>
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It is like ruby with out the dynamic aspects, but typed. <br/>
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In broad strokes it consists off:
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<ul>
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<li> <b> Parser:</b> Currently a peg parser, though a hand coded one is planned.
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The result of which is an AST</li>
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<li> <b> Compiler:</b> compiles the ast into a sequence of Register instructions.
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and runtime objects (classes, methods etc)</li>
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<li> <b> Parfait: </b> Is the runtime, ie the minimal set of objects needed to
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create a binary with the required information to be dynamic</li>
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<li> <b> Builtin: </b> A very small set of primitives that are impossible to express
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in soml (remembering that parfait will be expressed in soml eventually)</li>
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</ul>
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</p>
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<p>
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Just to summarize a few of soml features that are maybe unusual:
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<ul>
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<li> <b> Mesage based calling:</b> Calling is completely object oriented (not stack based)
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and uses Message and Frame objects.</li>
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<li> <b> Return addresses:</b> A soml method call may return to several addresses, according
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to type, and in case of exception</li>
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<li> <b> Overloaded arguments </b> A method is defined by name, but may have several
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implementations for different types of the arguments (statically matched)</li>
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</ul>
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</p>
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</div>
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<div class="row span10">
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<h5>Salama</h5>
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<p>
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To compile and run ruby, we need to parse and compile ruby code. To compile ruby to soml a clear
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mapping has to be achieved. Particularly the dynamic aspects, and typing need to be addressed.
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<br/>
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While parsing ruby is quite a difficult task, it has already been implemented in pure ruby
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<a href="https://github.com/whitequark/parser"> here </a>. The output of the parser is again
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an ast, which needs to be compiled to soml. <br/>
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The dynamic aspects of ruby are actually realtively easy to handle, once the whole system is
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in place, because the whole system is written in ruby without external dependencies.
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Since (when finished) it can compile ruby, it can do so to produce a binary. This binary can
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then contain the whole of the system, and so the resulting binary will be able to produce
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binary code when it runs. With small changes to the linking process (easy in ruby!) it can
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then extend itself.
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</p>
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<p>
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The type aspect is more tricky: Ruby is not typed and soml is after all. And if everything
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were objects (as we like to pretend in ruby) we could just do a lot of dynamic checking,
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possibly later introduce some caching. But everything is not an object, minimally integers
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are not, but maybe also floats and other values. The destinction between what is an integer
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and what an object has sprouted an elaborate type system, which is (by necessity) present in
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soml (see there).
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</p>
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<p>
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The idea (because it hasn't been implemented yet) is to have different functions for different
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types. The soml layer defines object layout and types and also lets us return to different
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places from a function (in effect a soml function call is like an if). By using this, we can
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compile a single ruby method into several soml methods. Each such method is typed, ie all
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arguments and variables are of known type. According to these types we can call methods according
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to their signatures. Also we can autognerate error methods for unhandled types, and predict
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that only a fraction of the possible combinations will actually be needed.
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</p>
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</div>
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