2014/09/06

DISCLAIMER: These notes are from the defunct k8 project which precedes SquirrelJME. The notes for SquirrelJME start on 2016/02/26! The k8 project was effectively a Java SE 8 operating system and as such all of the notes are in the context of that scope. That project is no longer my goal as SquirrelJME is the spiritual successor to it.

01:54

Ok, the input and output language plugins should convert to or from intermediary namespaces. So when a Java source file is read it is translated. However, language plugins could just be used to bridge together file formats such as source files into namespaces (and optionally output them). So the language plugins can be seen as end points whereas CodeRouter can connect one end to another.

02:12

Actually, CodeRouters need to be a bit more complex, they need to support an input format type and an output format type, this way it can be used for direct source to source compilation. Then it could also be used for namespaces also.

10:46

I changed the routers to take a locator directorly so that they are treated as the compilation space. The unit locators passed in the NamespaceSeeker are to be used in a classpath searching way.

12:47

The plugin requires a bit more advanced input for it to work well with the code and binfmt routers. However this makes language plugins a bit easier to use and more powerful.

13:13

And using a class just to carry argument passing data to plugins simplifies things as more things could be added in the future potentially, also removes the need to specify all those arguments when creating a new task. And there is no real need to pass all those extra arguments directly when they are all going to be passed through untouched anyway. Less work when I want to support a new type of language.

13:18

I am not sure if I should add a intermediary compiler which turns that code into machine code (and possibly back into intermediary code). LanguagePlugins interact directly with files and either load or save namespaces. Those namespaces can contain machine code, java byte code, or other kinds of code. It might be best to have an intermediary chain support of sorts for internal language compilation. That can provide a directionless river of code. When writing output binary files or raw code (maybe to/from assembly) if the namespace lacks a compiled language it can just be compiled as needed.

22:27

I can actually commonize the JavaTask stuff (at least the intro stuff) because most source code related stuff will end up doing the same thing all the time. That is: open unit, open file channel, creating a line and column reader, then performing some specific compilation work. Then in the future when I add more input languages I have less work to do implementing them. Saving time in the future is always a good idea and a goal.

22:39

I need to have two levels, one for raw binary input, which is then used by one that does text based handling. Adds an extra layer but it could be very handy when the input is potentially a raw binary file (which could contain very raw code).

22:55

In fact, I do not even need language plugins to return a task because most likely all they use for the most part is output of a file or namespace duplex. Although I will make it possible for it to be overriden if ever needed but in most cases that will probably only rarely ever be used.

23:59

Commonizing all of this code has resulted in major simplification and reduction of code in the JavaTask so now it is quite lean, just need to fix the compiler errors mostly related to unknown things.