porffor 0.2.0-c7b7423 → 0.2.0-dcc06c8

package/README.md

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # Porffor &nbsp;<sup><sub>/ˈpɔrfɔr/ &nbsp;*(poor-for)*</sup></sub>
-A from-scratch experimental **AOT** optimizing JS -> Wasm/C engine/compiler/runtime in JS. Not serious/intended for (real) use. (this is a straight forward, honest readme)<br>
+A from-scratch experimental **AOT** optimizing JS/TS -> Wasm/C engine/compiler/runtime in JS. Not serious/intended for (real) use. (this is a straight forward, honest readme)<br>
 Age: ~6 months (very on and off)
 
 ## Design
@@ -10,6 +10,65 @@ Porffor is a very unique JS engine, due many wildly different approaches. It is
 
 Porffor is primarily built from scratch, the only thing that is not is the parser (using [Acorn](https://github.com/acornjs/acorn)). Binaryen/etc is not used, we make final wasm binaries ourself. You could imagine it as compiling a language which is a sub (some things unsupported) and super (new/custom apis) set of javascript. Not based on any particular spec version, focusing on function/working over spec compliance.
 
+## Usage
+Expect nothing to work! Only very limited JS is currently supported. See files in `bench` for examples.
+
+### Setup
+1. Clone this repo (`git clone https://github.com/CanadaHonk/porffor.git`)
+2. `npm install` - for parser(s)
+
+### Running a file
+The repos comes with easy alias files for Unix and Windows, which you can use like so:
+- Unix: `./porf path/to/script.js`
+- Windows: `.\porf path/to/script.js`
+
+Please note that further examples below will just use `./porf`, you need to use `.\porf` on Windows. You can also swap out `node` in the alias to use another runtime like Deno (`deno run -A`) or Bun (`bun ...`), or just use it yourself (eg `node runner/index.js ...`, `bun runner/index.js ...`). Node and Bun should work great, Deno support is WIP.
+
+### Trying a REPL
+**`./porf`**. Just run it with no script file argument.
+
+### Compiling to native binaries
+> [!WARNING]
+> Compiling to native binaries uses [2c](#2c), Porffor's own Wasm -> C compiler, which is experimental.
+
+**`./porf native path/to/script.js out(.exe)`**. You can specify the compiler with `-compiler=clang/zig/gcc`, and which opt level to use with `-cO=O3` (`Ofast` by default). Output binaries are also stripped by default.
+
+### Compiling to C
+> [!WARNING]
+> Compiling to C uses [2c](#2c), Porffor's own Wasm -> C compiler, which is experimental.
+
+**`./porf c path/to/script.js (out.c)`**. When not including an output file, it will be printed to stdout instead.
+
+### Compiling to a Wasm binary
+**`./porf compile path/to/script.js out.wasm`**. Currently it does not use an import standard like WASI, so it is mostly unusable.
+
+### Options
+- `-target=wasm|c|native` (default: `wasm`) to set target output (native compiles c output to binary, see args below)
+- `-target=c|native` only:
+  - `-o=out.c|out.exe|out` to set file to output c or binary
+- `-target=native` only:
+  - `-compiler=clang` to set compiler binary (path/name) to use to compile
+  - `-cO=O3` to set compiler opt argument
+- `-parser=acorn|@babel/parser|meriyah|hermes-parser` (default: `acorn`) to set which parser to use
+- `-parse-types` to enable parsing type annotations/typescript. if `-parser` is unset, changes default to `@babel/parser`. does not type check
+- `-opt-types` to perform optimizations using type annotations as compiler hints. does not type check
+- `-valtype=i32|i64|f64` (default: `f64`) to set valtype
+- `-O0` to disable opt
+- `-O1` (default) to enable basic opt (simplify insts, treeshake wasm imports)
+- `-O2` to enable advanced opt (inlining). unstable
+- `-O3` to enable advanceder opt (precompute const math). unstable
+- `-no-run` to not run wasm output, just compile
+- `-opt-log` to log some opts
+- `-code-log` to log some codegen (you probably want `-funcs`)
+- `-regex-log` to log some regex
+- `-funcs` to log funcs
+- `-ast-log` to log AST
+- `-opt-funcs` to log funcs after opt
+- `-sections` to log sections as hex
+- `-opt-no-inline` to not inline any funcs
+- `-tail-call` to enable tail calls (experimental + not widely implemented)
+- `-compile-hints` to enable V8 compilation hints (experimental + doesn't seem to do much?)
+
 ## Limitations
 - No full object support yet
 - Little built-ins/prototype
@@ -118,10 +177,10 @@ No particular order and no guarentees, just what could happen soon™
 - Objects
   - Basic object expressions (eg `{}`, `{ a: 0 }`)
 - Wasm
-  - *Basic* Wasm engine (interpreter) in js
+  - *Basic* Wasm engine (interpreter) in JS
 - More math operators (`**`, etc)
 - `do { ... } while (...)`
-- Rewrite `console.log` to work with strings/arrays
+- Typed export inputs (array)
 - Exceptions
   - Rewrite to use actual strings (optional?)
   - `try { } finally { }`
@@ -130,12 +189,24 @@ No particular order and no guarentees, just what could happen soon™
   - Rewrite local indexes per func for smallest local header and remove unused idxs
   - Smarter inline selection (snapshots?)
   - Remove const ifs (`if (true)`, etc)
-  - Use type(script) information to remove unneeded typechecker code
+  - Memory alignment
+- Runtime
+  - WASI target
+  - Run precompiled Wasm file if given
+- Cool proposals
+  - [Optional Chaining Assignment](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-optional-chaining-assignment)
+  - [Modulus and Additional Integer Math](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-integer-and-modulus-math)
+  - [Array Equality](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-array-equality)
+  - [Declarations in Conditionals](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-Declarations-in-Conditionals)
+  - [Seeded Pseudo-Random Numbers](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-seeded-random)
+  - [`do` expressions](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-do-expressions)
+  - [String Trim Characters](https://github.com/Kingwl/proposal-string-trim-characters)
+- Posts
+  - Inlining investigation
+- Self hosted testing?
 
 ## Performance
-*For the things it supports most of the time*, Porffor is blazingly fast compared to most interpreters, and common engines running without JIT. For those with JIT, it is not that much slower like a traditional interpreter would be; mostly the same or a bit faster/slower depending on what.
-
-![Screenshot of comparison chart](https://github.com/CanadaHonk/porffor/assets/19228318/76c75264-cc68-4be1-8891-c06dc389d97a)
+*For the features it supports most of the time*, Porffor is *blazingly fast* compared to most interpreters and common engines running without JIT. For those with JIT, it is usually slower by default, but can catch up with compiler arguments and typed input, even more so when compiling to native binaries.
 
 ## Optimizations
 Mostly for reducing size. I do not really care about compiler perf/time as long as it is reasonable. We do not use/rely on external opt tools (`wasm-opt`, etc), instead doing optimization inside the compiler itself creating even smaller code sizes than `wasm-opt` itself can produce as we have more internal information.
@@ -157,10 +228,12 @@ Mostly for reducing size. I do not really care about compiler perf/time as long
 - Remove unneeded blocks (no `br`s inside)
 - Remove unused imports
 - Use data segments for initing arrays/strings
+- (Likely more not documented yet, todo)
 
 ### Wasm module
 - Type cache/index (no repeated types)
 - No main func if empty (and other exports)
+- No tags if unused/optimized out
 
 ## Test262
 Porffor can run Test262 via some hacks/transforms which remove unsupported features whilst still doing the same asserts (eg simpler error messages using literals only). It currently passes >10% (see latest commit desc for latest and details). Use `node test262` to test, it will also show a difference of overall results between the last commit and current results.
@@ -180,7 +253,7 @@ Porffor can run Test262 via some hacks/transforms which remove unsupported featu
   - `wasmSpec.js`: "enums"/info from wasm spec
   - `wrap.js`: wrapper for compiler which instantiates and produces nice exports
 
-- `runner`: contains utils for running js with the compiler
+- `runner`: contains utils for running JS with the compiler
   - `index.js`: the main file, you probably want to use this
   - `info.js`: runs with extra info printed
   - `repl.js`: basic repl (uses `node:repl`)
@@ -193,57 +266,26 @@ Porffor can run Test262 via some hacks/transforms which remove unsupported featu
 - `test262`: test262 runner and utils
 
 ## Usecases
-Basically none (other than giving people headaches). Potential ideas to come?
-
-## Usage
-Basically nothing will work :). See files in `test` for examples.
-
-1. Clone repo
-2. `npm install`
-3. `node test` to run tests (some will fail)
-4. `node runner path/to/code.js` to run a file (or `node runner` to use wip repl)
-
-You can also use Deno (`deno run -A ...` instead of `node ...`), or Bun (`bun ...` instead of `node ...`).
-
-### Options
-- `-target=wasm|c|native` (default: `wasm`) to set target output (native compiles c output to binary, see args below)
-- `-target=c|native` only:
-  - `-o=out.c|out.exe|out` to set file to output c or binary
-- `-target=native` only:
-  - `-compiler=clang` to set compiler binary (path/name) to use to compile
-  - `-cO=O3` to set compiler opt argument
-- `-valtype=i32|i64|f64` (default: `f64`) to set valtype
-- `-O0` to disable opt
-- `-O1` (default) to enable basic opt (simplify insts, treeshake wasm imports)
-- `-O2` to enable advanced opt (inlining)
-- `-O3` to enable advanceder opt (precompute const math)
-- `-no-run` to not run wasm output, just compile
-- `-opt-log` to log some opts
-- `-code-log` to log some codegen (you probably want `-funcs`)
-- `-regex-log` to log some regex
-- `-funcs` to log funcs
-- `-ast-log` to log AST
-- `-opt-funcs` to log funcs after opt
-- `-sections` to log sections as hex
-- `-opt-no-inline` to not inline any funcs
-- `-tail-call` to enable tail calls (experimental + not widely implemented)
-- `-compile-hints` to enable V8 compilation hints (experimental + doesn't seem to do much?)
+Basically none right now (other than giving people headaches). Potential ideas:
+- Safety. As Porffor is written in JS, a memory-safe language\*, and compiles JS to Wasm, a fully sandboxed environment\*, it is quite safe. (\* These rely on the underlying implementations being secure. You could also run Wasm, or even Porffor itself, with an interpreter instead of a JIT for bonus security points too.)
+- Compiling JS to native binaries. This is still very early!
+- More in future probably?
 
 ## VSCode extension
-There is a vscode extension in `porffor-for-vscode` which tweaks js syntax highlighting to be nicer with porffor features (eg highlighting wasm inside of inline asm).
+There is a vscode extension in `vscode-ext` which tweaks JS syntax highlighting to be nicer with porffor features (eg highlighting wasm inside of inline asm).
 
 ## Isn't this the same as AssemblyScript/other Wasm langs?
 No. they are not alike at all internally and have very different goals/ideals:
 - Porffor is made as a generic JS engine, not for Wasm stuff specifically
-- Porffor takes in JS, not a different language or typescript
-- Porffor is made in pure JS and compiles itself, not using Binaryen/etc
+- Porffor primarily consumes JS
+- Porffor is written in pure JS and compiles itself, not using Binaryen/etc
 - (Also I didn't know it existed when I started this, lol)
 
 ## FAQ
 
 ### 1. Why the name?
 `purple` in Welsh is `porffor`. Why purple?
-- No other js engine is purple colored
+- No other JS engine is purple colored
 - Purple is pretty cool
 - Purple apparently represents "ambition", which is.. one word to describe this project
 - The hard to speak name is also the noise your brain makes in reaction to this idea!