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author Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
date Tue, 08 May 2018 16:09:12 +0900
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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1 # MoarVM: A virtual machine for NQP and Rakudo
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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2
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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3 Over the course of the last year, we've been working to make both NQP and
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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4 Rakudo more portable. This has primarily been done to enable the JVM porting
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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5 work. While the JVM is an important platform to target, and initial work
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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6 suggests it can give us a faster and more stable Rakudo, there are some use
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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7 cases, or users, that the JVM will not cater to so well. Startup time will
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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8 likely remain a little high for one-liners and quick scripts. Other potential
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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9 users simply don't want to use the JVM, for whatever reason. That's fine:
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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10 there's more than one way to do it, and our strategy has been to enable that by
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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11 adding support for the JVM without breaking support for Parrot. Additionally,
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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12 pmurias will be working on a JavaScript backend for a GSoC project.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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13
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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14 Today I'd like to introduce some work that, all being well, will lead to an
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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15 additional "way to do it" arriving over the next several months. A small team,
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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16 composed of myself, diakopter, japhb and masak, have been quietly working on
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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17 taking the design of the 6model object system and building a runtime around it.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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18 Thus, we've created the "Metamodel On A Runtime" Virtual Machine, or the "MOAR
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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19 VM", which we've taken to writing as "MoarVM".
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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20
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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21 This is not a release announcement. At present, MoarVM runs neither NQP nor
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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22 Rakudo, though a cross-compiler exists that allows translating and passing
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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23 much of the NQP test suite. We're revealing it ahead of YAPC::NA, so it can be
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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24 openly discussed by the Perl 6 team. The goal from the start has been to run
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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25 NQP, then run Rakudo. The JVM porting work has established the set of steps
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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26 that such an effort takes, namely:
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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27
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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28 1. Build an NQP cross-compiler that targets the desired platform. Make it good
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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29 enough to compile the MOP, built-ins and the classes at the heart of the
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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30 regex/grammar engine. Make it pass most of the NQP test suite.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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31 2. Make the cross-compiler good enough to cross-compile NQP itself.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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32 3. Close the bootstrap loop, making NQP self host on the new platform.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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33 4. Do the Rakudo port.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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34
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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35 At the moment, the JVM work is well into the final step. For MoarVM, we've
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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36 reached the second step. That is to say, we already have a cross-compiler that
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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37 compiles a substantial range of NQP language constructs into MoarVM bytecode,
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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38 including the MOP, built-ins and regex-related classes. Around 51 of the NQP
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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39 test files (out of a total of 62) pass. Work towards getting the rest of NQP
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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40 to cross-compile is ongoing.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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41
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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42 Since anybody who has read this far into the post probably has already got a
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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43 whole bunch of questions, I'm going to write the rest of it in a
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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44 question-and-answer style.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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45
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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46 ## What are the main goals?
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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47
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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48 To create a VM backend for Rakudo Perl 6 that:
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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49
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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50 * Is **lightweight and focused** on doing exactly what Rakudo needs, without any
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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51 prior technical or domain debt to pay off.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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52
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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53 * **Supports 6model** and various other needs natively and, hopefully, efficiently.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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54
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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55 * Is a **quick and easy build**, with few dependencies. I was rather impressed
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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56 with how quick LuaJIT can be built, and took that as an inspiration.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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57
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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58 * Enable the **near-term exploration of JIT compilation in 6model** (exploring
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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59 this through invokedynamic on the JVM is already underway too).
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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60
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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61 ## What's on the inside?
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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62
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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63 So far, MoarVM has:
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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64
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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65 * An **implementation of 6model**. In fact, the VM uses 6model as its core object
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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66 system. Even strings, arrays and hashes are really 6model objects (which in
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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67 reality means we have representations for arrays and hashes, which can be
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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68 re-used by high-level types). This is the first time 6model has been built
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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69 up from scratch without re-using existing VM data structures.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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70
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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71 * Enough in place to support **a sizable subset of the `nqp::` op space**. The tests
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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72 from the NQP test suite that can be translated by the cross-compiler cover a
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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73 relatively diverse range of features: the boring easy stuff (variables,
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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74 conditionals, loops, subs), OO stuff (classes, methods, roles, mixins, and,
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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75 naturally, meta-programming), multiple dispatch, most of grammars (including
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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76 LTM), and various other bits.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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77
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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78 * **Unicode strings**, designed with future NFG support in mind. The VM includes
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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79 the Unicode Character Database, meaning that character name and property
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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80 lookups, case changing and so forth can be supported without any external
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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81 dependencies. Encoding of strings takes place only at the point of I/O or
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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82 when a Buf rather than a Str is requested; the rest of the time, strings
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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83 are opaque (we're working towards NFG and also ropes).
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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84
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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85 * **Precise, generational GC**. The nursery is managed through semi-space copying,
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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86 with objects that are seen a second time in the nursery being promoted to a
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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87 second generation, which is broken up into sized heaps. Allocations in the
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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88 nursery are thus "bump the pointer", the copying dealing with the resulting
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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89 fragmentation.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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90
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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91 * **Bytecode assembly done from an AST**, not from a textual format. MoarVM has
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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92 no textual assembly language or intermediate language. Of course, there's
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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93 a way to dump bytecode to something human-readable for debugging, but nothing
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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94 to go in the opposite direction. This saves us from producing text, only to
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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95 parse it to produce bytecode.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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96
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
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97 * **IO and other platform stuff** provided by the Apache Portable Runtime, big
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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98 integer support provided by libtommath, and re-use of existing atomic ops
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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99 and hash implementations. We will likely replace the APR with libuv in the
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
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100 future. The general principle is to re-use things that we're unlikely to
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
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101 be able to recreate ourselves to the same level of quality or on an
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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102 acceptable time scale, enabling us to focus on the core domain.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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103
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
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104 ## What does this mean for the Rakudo on JVM work?
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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105
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
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106 Relatively little. Being on the JVM is an important goal in its own right. The
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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107 JVM has a great number of things in its favor: it's a mature, well-optimized,
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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108 widely deployed technology, and in some organizations the platform of choice
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
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109 ("use what you like, so long as it runs on the JVM"). No matter how well Moar
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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110 turns out, the JVM still has a couple of decades head start.
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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111
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
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112 Additionally, a working NQP on JVM implementation and a fledgling Rakudo on
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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113 JVM already exist. Work on making Rakudo run, then run fast, on the JVM will
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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114 continue at the same kind of pace. After all, it's already been taking place
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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115 concurrently with building MoarVM. :-)
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
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116
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
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117 ## What does this mean for Rakudo on Parrot?
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
parents:
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118
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Takahiro SHIMIZU <anatofuz@cr.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
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119 In the short term, until MoarVM runs Rakudo well, this shouldn't really impact
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120 Rakudo on Parrot. Beyond that is a more interesting question. The JVM is widely
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121 deployed and battle-hardened, and so is interesting in its own right whatever
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122 else Rakudo runs on. That's still not the case for Parrot. Provided MoarVM gets
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123 to a point where it runs Rakudo more efficiently and is at least as stable and
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124 feature complete, it's fairly likely to end up as a more popular choice of
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125 backend. There are no plans to break support for Rakudo on Parrot.
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126
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127 ## Why do the initial work in private?
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128
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129 There were a bunch of reasons for doing so. First and foremost, because it was
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130 hard to gauge how long it would take to get anywhere interesting, if indeed it
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131 did. As such, it didn't seem constructive to raise expectations or discourage
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132 work on other paths that may have led somewhere better, sooner. Secondly, this
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133 had to be done on a fairly limited time budget. I certainly didn't have time
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134 for every bit of the design to be bikeshedded and rehashed 10 times, which is
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135 most certainly a risk when design is done in a very public way. Good designs
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136 often come from a single designer. For better or worse, MoarVM gets me.
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137
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138 ## Why not keep it private until point X?
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139
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140 The most immediate reason for making this work public now is because a large
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141 number of Perl 6 core developers will be at YAPC::NA, and I want us to be
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142 able to openly discuss MoarVM as part of the larger discussions and planning
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143 with regard to Perl 6, NQP and Rakudo. It's not in any sense "ready" for use
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144 in the real world yet. The benefits of the work being publicly known just hit
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145 the point of outweighing the costs.
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146
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147 ## What's the rough timeline?
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148
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149 My current aim is to have the MoarVM backend supported in NQP by the July or
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150 August release of NQP, with Rakudo support to come in the Rakudo compiler
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151 release in August or September. A "Star" distribution release, with modules
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152 and tools, would come after that. For now, the NQP cross-compiler lives in
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153 the MoarVM repository.
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154
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155 After we get Rakudo running and stabilized on MoarVM, the focus will move
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156 towards 6model-aware JIT compilation, improving the stability of the threads
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157 implementation (the parallel GC exists, but needs some love still), asynchronous
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158 IO and full NFG string/rope support.
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159
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160 We'll have a bunch of the right people in the same room at YAPC::NA, so we'll
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161 work on trying to get a more concrete roadmap together there.
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162
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163 ## Where is...
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164
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165 * The Git repository: https://github.com/MoarVM/MoarVM
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166 * The IRC channel: #moarvm on freenode.org