Binterpreter

A bytecode interpreter with a compiler frontend, built in C with a Rust-based garbage collector. Based on Bob Nystrom's clox from Crafting Interpreters, extended with a split C/Rust memory model designed to avoid the concurrency pitfalls of GIL-dependent runtimes.

See the design document for architecture and rationale.

Prerequisites

• gcc
• make
• cppcheck

Build

make

The build output can be found in out/binterpreter. The executable currently runs as a REPL.

Lint

make lint

Features

• Automatic memory management: A generational garbage collector handles all object lifecycle management, eliminating manual memory handling and the drawbacks of reference counting.
• [WIP] Actor-model concurrency: Independent VMs communicate via deep-copy message passing to enable multi-core execution without shared memory or a GIL.
• [WIP] Rust-native extensions: Native language extensions can be written in a thread-safe manner with Rust.

Running a source file

WIP

Debugging

Compile with the following to:

• Print compiled bytecode chunk: make CFLAGS="-Wall -Wextra -Isrc -g -fsanitize=address -DDEBUG_PRINT_CODE"
• Trace VM execution: make CFLAGS="-Wall -Wextra -Isrc -g -fsanitize=address -DDEBUG_TRACE_EXECUTION