37 lines
982 B
Plaintext
37 lines
982 B
Plaintext
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== Goal
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A memory-safe language with a simple translator to x86 that can be feasibly written in x86.
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== Definitions of terms
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Memory-safe: it should be impossible to:
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a) create a pointer out of arbitrary data, or
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b) to access heap memory after it's been freed.
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Simple: do all the work in a 2-pass translator:
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Pass 1: check each instruction's types in isolation.
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Pass 2: emit code for each instruction in isolation.
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== types
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int
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char
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(address _)
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(array _ n)
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(ref _)
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addresses can't be saved to stack or global,
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or included in compound types
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or used across a call (to eliminate possibility of free)
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<reg x> : (address T) <- advance <reg/mem> : (array T), <reg offset> : (index T)
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arrays require a size
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(ref array _) may not include a size
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== open questions
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Is argv an address?
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Global variables are easiest to map to addresses.
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Ideally we'd represent 'indirect' as a '*' and we could just count to make
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sure that an instruction never has more than one '*'.
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