AOT compiler (was: Running Compiled Guile Objects)

[Nala Ginrut <nalaginrut@gmail.com>]

@basile I'm glad you raise this topic, I've played lobgccjit with a toy
project.
https://gitlab.com/hardenedlinux/screaming-fist

I would say libgccjit is a wrong name since it's more like a tool for AOT.
Of course, one may still use it for JIT, however you have to do your own
work for JIT and finally use libgccjit for codegen. 😁

Best regards.


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Basile Starynkevitch <basile@starynkevitch.net>
Date: Sun, Dec 15, 2024, 02:11
Subject: Re: Running Compiled Guile Objects
To: Nala Ginrut <nalaginrut@gmail.com>, Hakan Candar <
hakancandar@protonmail.com>
Cc: guile-user@gnu.org <guile-user@gnu.org>, <jit@gcc.gnu.org>


On Sat, 2024-12-14 at 09:15 +0900, Nala Ginrut wrote:
> Hi Hakan!
> The current Guile is not AOT yet. Although the object file is ELF,
> it's
> just bytecode wrapped ELF header. So you can't run it as a regular
> executable file.
>

Those willing to contribute a proper ahead-of-time compiler to GNU
guile could use the GNU CC libgccjit library which is part of the GCC
compiler.
https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/jit/

This libgccjit layer of the GCC compiler is stable and maintained C API
and has some obsolete C++ API (which seems unmaintained in december
2024). Most of the libgccjit code is internally coded (under GPL
license) in C++, but the stable API is for C.

I am using the C API of libgccjit in the RefPerSys open source
inference engine project (GPLv3+ licensed) on
https://github.com/RefPerSys/RefPerSys/

Both libgccjit and GNU lightning (see
https://www.gnu.org/software/lightning/ ...) could be a basis for
adding a genuine compilation layer to GNU guile. And RefPerSys uses
both.

I guess a significant issue would be to use libgccjit (or GNU
lightning) with GUILE's garbage collector (which seems to be Boehm
conservative GC).

The RefPerSys project has a precise garbage collector and some
persistence (to textual files). Since it is GPLv3+ licensed, its code
could be reused in a future GUILE major version. RefPerSys is mostly
coded in C++.

I did contribute to GCC long time ago and hope that RefPerSys could
become a GNU project (but don't know how to make that happen)

Regards from near Paris in France.

-- 
Basile STARYNKEVITCH           <basile@starynkevitch.net>
8 rue de la Faïencerie
92340 Bourg-la-Reine,          France
http://starynkevitch.net/Basile & https://github.com/bstarynk