Re: [DotGNU]WHere does CVM fit into the pnet picture?

[Rhys Weatherley]

On Friday 04 July 2003 07:03 pm, Mark Easton wrote:

> Apart from saying how impressed I am by the versatility and ingenuity of
> Portable.NET,

Thanks! :-)

> I would like to ask a very quickly if my understanding of
> how CVM fits into the Portable.NET picture is correct.  It seems to me
> that the high-level compilers compile into CVM before a second phase
> compiler converts CVM into an intermediate format (currently either JVM
> BC or .NET IL).

It's actually the other way around.  The high-level compilers, such as cscc, 
compile C# and other languages into IL bytecode.

When the engine is launched on an IL bytecode binary, the IL is converted into 
a sequence of CVM instructions in memory.  The CVM instructions are then 
interpreted.  CVM is used solely inside the engine - it is never visible to 
outside tools like the compiler.

The compilers do have an intermediate form of sorts - the abstract syntax tree 
that is managed by treecc.  But that is a separate issue from CVM.

> So, am I in the right ball park or am I just another poor deluded fool
> playing with things I don't understand?

You were almost there.  More information can be found in the source tree in 
the file "pnet/engine/HACKING" and in the following paper on the design:

    http://www.southern-storm.com.au/download/pnet-engine.pdf

Cheers,

Rhys.