Hello everyone, I would like to implement functionality something like the
following in my sample language.....
class A {
Object attrA1
}
class B {
int attrB1
bool method methTestB ( .... )
}
main () {
bool test
Object a
a = new Class A()
a.attr1 = new Class B()
a.attrB1 = 5
test = a.methTestB(...)
}
I assume that I will need:
- some type of runtime lookup table to store the class structure of Class A
and B.
- some way of encoding and storing an object's attribute type information
- a means of retrieving this information at runtime so that in the event
that an object's attribute is itself an object, attributes from the latter
can be accessed as well.
I have looked at the LLVM API but didn't see any straightforward way to do
this.
Thanks in advance for any comments.
Frank.
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Good question. I've been wondering about that myself. On Apr 24, 2013 6:16 PM, "Frank White" <frankwhite1003 at gmail.com> wrote:> Hello everyone, I would like to implement functionality something like the > following in my sample language..... > > class A { > Object attrA1 > } > > class B { > int attrB1 > bool method methTestB ( .... ) > } > > main () { > bool test > Object a > a = new Class A() > a.attr1 = new Class B() > > a.attrB1 = 5 > test = a.methTestB(...) > } > > I assume that I will need: > > - some type of runtime lookup table to store the class structure of Class > A and B. > - some way of encoding and storing an object's attribute type information > - a means of retrieving this information at runtime so that in the event > that an object's attribute is itself an object, attributes from the latter > can be accessed as well. > > I have looked at the LLVM API but didn't see any straightforward way to do > this. > > Thanks in advance for any comments. > Frank. > > > _______________________________________________ > LLVM Developers mailing list > LLVMdev at cs.uiuc.edu http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu > http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev > >-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.llvm.org/pipermail/llvm-dev/attachments/20130424/29d477d2/attachment.html>
On 24 Apr 2013, at 23:13, Frank White <frankwhite1003 at gmail.com> wrote:> Hello everyone, I would like to implement functionality something like the following in my sample language..... >{snipped not very informative C++ pseudocode.}> I assume that I will need: > > - some type of runtime lookup table to store the class structure of Class A and B.That depends on your type system, which isn't clear from your language snippets. Are you doing static type inference? If so, this only needs to be stored in the AST, if not then you will need run-time type information. Does your language support duck typing? If so, then you will need some form of dynamic lookup in a runtime library, if not then you will be able to just generate vtables and jump to constant offsets into them.> - some way of encoding and storing an object's attribute type informationYes, if your language exposes these.> - a means of retrieving this information at runtime so that in the event that an object's attribute is itself an object, attributes from the latter can be accessed as well.Correct.> I have looked at the LLVM API but didn't see any straightforward way to do this.Correct. These are highly dependent on your object model and your ABI. For example, Clang supports Objective-C with two Apple and three GNU-like Objective-C runtimes. This includes four (I think, possibly more now) ways of representing class structures and at least four ways of doing message sending. You choice is to either define a new object model and ABI, or follow the approach of LanguageKit and reuse an existing one (in our case, the GNUstep Objective-C runtime). These choices are orthogonal to your choice to use LLVM for code generation. David
Thanks for your feedback David.... Yes, the intention is to support duck-typing. In my code example, a.attrB1 = 5 .... is probably more accurately stated as ..... a. attr1.attrB1 = 5 Certainly this would be an unsafe call because we would not know that attrB1 is an attribute of attr1 until runtime. I believe this type of call is valid in a language like Python. Are there any references out there that would help me implement something like this? thanks, frank On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 4:16 AM, David Chisnall <David.Chisnall at cl.cam.ac.uk> wrote:> On 24 Apr 2013, at 23:13, Frank White <frankwhite1003 at gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hello everyone, I would like to implement functionality something like > the following in my sample language..... > > > > {snipped not very informative C++ pseudocode.} > > > > I assume that I will need: > > > > - some type of runtime lookup table to store the class structure of > Class A and B. > > That depends on your type system, which isn't clear from your language > snippets. Are you doing static type inference? If so, this only needs to > be stored in the AST, if not then you will need run-time type information. > > Does your language support duck typing? If so, then you will need some > form of dynamic lookup in a runtime library, if not then you will be able > to just generate vtables and jump to constant offsets into them. > > > - some way of encoding and storing an object's attribute type information > > Yes, if your language exposes these. > > > - a means of retrieving this information at runtime so that in the event > that an object's attribute is itself an object, attributes from the latter > can be accessed as well. > > Correct. > > > I have looked at the LLVM API but didn't see any straightforward way to > do this. > > Correct. These are highly dependent on your object model and your ABI. > For example, Clang supports Objective-C with two Apple and three GNU-like > Objective-C runtimes. This includes four (I think, possibly more now) ways > of representing class structures and at least four ways of doing message > sending. > > You choice is to either define a new object model and ABI, or follow the > approach of LanguageKit and reuse an existing one (in our case, the GNUstep > Objective-C runtime). These choices are orthogonal to your choice to use > LLVM for code generation. > > David > >-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.llvm.org/pipermail/llvm-dev/attachments/20130425/657acacf/attachment.html>