[Newcompiler] Status of the NewCompiler

[Marcus Denker]

Hello,

Last summer/fall, Mathieu Suen worked (as part of the ESUG  
SummerTalk) on the NewCompiler framework.

He added
	-> Support for literalVariable read/write bytecode
	-> Human readable Error Messages for the Parser that say more then  
"SmaCCParserError".
	-> Support for Squeak 3.9 Pragmas / A solution for parsing  
primitives (which used the old parser with
              nobody realizing it... ;-) )
         -> An experiment for a Smalltalk Scripting Language's parser  
(Saphire)
	-> Many of smaller and larger bugfixes and improvements

Thanks a lot!

The NewCompiler framework has been used in many projects, both at SCG  
and elsewhere.

Next things on the TODO
====================

Bugs
-------

- variables in the debugger seem to be not work correctly when  
selecting them for a doit / inspect it.
- in the debugger make "debug it" work. See ParagraphEditor>>#debugIt.
	- fix debugIt to not compile a #doit method but use the same  
mechanism as #doIt.
- instVar vs. Field in IRBuilder. Something is very  not nice here.  
We should provide both concepts.
- Fix Compiler IR-->RBNode decompile
- Make to Block primitives work for BlockClosure so that exceptions  
(#ifCurtailed:, ...) work

Enhancements
--------------

- Integrate RB with Newcompiler Parser.
	-- step one: Put Parser into it's own package (NewParser)... or the  
AST package
	-- step two: remove RBParser, check/ fix RefactoringEngine
-  work-around for bytecode limitations (jump offsett, number of  
temps, number of literals ...) in IRBuilder
    (see http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/pipermail/squeak-dev/2006- 
February/100691.html)
- Look at optimizing the Closures generated by the compiler. VM  
hacking included.
- VMmaker code generator should use RB AST


Documentation
------------
- We need websites for AST, RB, SmaCC, NewCompiler
	-- Write Hitchhikers Guide to the New Compiler:
	   http://www.whysmalltalk.com/articles/bykov/HitchHiker.htm
	   But then, these examples are even simpler to realise with  
Persphone/Geppetto aka. "The Reflectivity"...
	-- IRBuilder: comments for public method, provide documentation for  
stack effects
- Better bugtracker. At least I loose track of the Mantis bugs very  
easily. Can't it
   generate emails to this list? Maybe use Roundup like Reflectivity  
and Moose?
   (http://macamis.unibe.ch/trackers)

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