path: root/transect/compiler6

== Goal

A memory-safe language with a simple translator to x86 that can be feasibly written in x86.

== Definitions of terms

Memory-safe: it should be impossible to:
  a) create a pointer out of arbitrary data, or
  b) to access heap memory after it's been freed.

Simple: do all the work in a 2-pass translator:
  Pass 1: check each instruction's types in isolation.
  Pass 2: emit code for each instruction in isolation.

== types

int
char
(address _)
(array _ n)
(ref _)

addresses can't be saved to stack or global,
      or included in compound types
      or used across a call (to eliminate possibility of free)

<reg x> : (address T) <- advance <reg/mem> : (array T), <reg offset> : (index T)

arrays require a size
(ref array _) may not include a size

== open questions
Is argv an address?
Global variables are easiest to map to addresses.
Ideally we'd represent 'indirect' as a '*' and we could just count to make
sure that an instruction never has more than one '*'.