llvm dev - Dec 2008 - [LLVMdev] TableML status

Hi,

I've been working on TableML some more and I thought I would see about 
how I should work on getting it into the tree, since it's nearing a 
usable state.

So far I have a (mostly) working interpreter for a subset of Standard 
ML. After interpreting a set of definitions, the interpreter passes the 
resulting values off to a backend for serialization. The idea, for those 
who didn't see my previous email, is to replace TableGen for use cases 
that require more expressiveness. In particular, I was envisioning using 
it in llvmc2 to express compiler driver logic.

Currently the TableML source is about 4000 lines, which I'm aware is 
already too big for a patch. I didn't want to send something that didn't
actually do anything for inclusion in the tree, though, and this is 
about the minimal size that could actually be useful. If anyone has 
suggestions about how to proceed or comments on TableML in general, I'd 
be glad to hear them.

Patrick

On Dec 11, 2008, at 12:49 AM, Patrick Walton wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've been working on TableML some more and I thought I would see about
> how I should work on getting it into the tree, since it's nearing a
> usable state.
Hi Patrick,

Sorry for not responding earlier.  I have a couple of high level  
questions about this work.  First, is the goal to just generalize and  
strengthen the language that is input to tblgen?  If so, what  
application are you primarily interested in (for example, the code  
generator, llvmc, etc)?
> So far I have a (mostly) working interpreter for a subset of Standard
> ML. After interpreting a set of definitions, the interpreter passes  
> the
> resulting values off to a backend for serialization. The idea, for  
> those
> who didn't see my previous email, is to replace TableGen for use cases
> that require more expressiveness. In particular, I was envisioning  
> using
> it in llvmc2 to express compiler driver logic.
I'd really rather not make a new front-end for tblgen.  IF you're  
interested in making tblgen more expressive (which is great!) I'd  
really rather either a) improve tblgen, or b) replace it.  Adding  
another system that is only used in some cases makes it more difficult  
to get to know LLVM because you have to learn multiple different  
systems.

-Chris