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The article details the author's project, Bob, which compiles the Scheme programming language to WebAssembly. It discusses the implementation of a new compiler that uses WASM's garbage collection to manage Scheme objects and highlights the challenges of handling complex data types. The author shares insights from the project, including how symbolic representations are handled in WASM.
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Bob, a long-standing open-source project, has evolved significantly since its inception 15 years ago. Initially a suite for implementing the Scheme programming language in Python, it includes an interpreter, compiler, and virtual machine. Recent updates saw the addition of a C++ VM and, more recently, a new compiler that translates Scheme directly to WebAssembly (WASM). This new compiler aims to explore the complexities of converting a high-level language like Scheme, which features built-in data structures and garbage collection, into WASM.
A key focus of this project lies in utilizing the WASM garbage collection extension. The article explains how various Scheme objects are represented in WASM, such as pairs, booleans, and symbols. For instance, a pair is structured to hold references to two objects, while symbols are managed through offsets in linear memory due to WASM's lack of built-in string support. This allows for efficient memory management and string interning, which conserves memory by reusing instances of the same symbol.
Implementing the built-in `write` function posed challenges due to the limitations of the host environment's access to WASM GC references. The author chose to implement this functionality directly in WASM text, with only minimal dependencies on host functions for character and integer output. The process involved crafting functions to emit Scheme data types in their canonical forms, demonstrating the intricate relationship between high-level language features and low-level memory management. Overall, the project has enriched the author's understanding of realistic code emission to WASM, encapsulated in a well-documented WasmCompiler class that comprises over 1,000 lines of code.
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