Re: CLISP GSoC Project Ideas

Hi,

I don't mean to interject, but for what it's worth, I know that Clasp,
a 'new' implementation with a C++ substrate, has successfully
integrated Robert Strandh's SICL compiler 'Cleavir' and makes active
use of it. Potentially this makes integrating his compiler frontend
into CLISP more feasible, as there is previous experience of doing the
same with another implementation. At least for me, this would also be
quite interesting, having had some interest and small contributions to
SICL in the past.

Charles

On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 6:36 PM, Sam Steingold <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Charles,
>
> I did not realize that you were writing to clisp-list, not clisp-devel.
> I am replying there, so that Bruno will see it.
> I hope he will volunteer to be the primary mentor.
> I am certainly willing to help too, but Bruno's command of both C and
> CLISP internals is unsurpassed.
>
> Bruno, please respond!
>
> Thanks.
>
>> * Charles Zhang <[email protected]> [2018-02-18 17:57:19 -0800]:
>>
>> Thanks for your encouraging response.
>>
>> After digging deeper into the CLISP internals (reading the byte-code
>> specification), I've decided a do-able and interesting backend project
>> would be to add native file compilation as described here:
>> https://clisp.sourceforge.io/wanted.html
>> My understanding is that this would allow the use of external debuggers
>> like GDB on compiled code and forgo the need for a byte-code interpreter at
>> execution time. In essence, this would be the ahead of time counterpart to
>> the JIT compiler. I do not know which option (to C, LLVM, or GCC IR) would
>> be the easiest to integrate into CLISP, although my intuition tells me that
>> transpilation to C would be easiest. At this point, I am wondering if there
>> is anyone available who is willing to mentor this project, so that I may
>> write a more detailed proposal to be submitted for GSoC and receive general
>> pointers.
>>
>> Charles
>>
>> On Fri, Feb 16, 2018 at 9:52 AM, Sam Steingold <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Charles,
>>>
>>> > * Charles Zhang <[email protected]> [2018-02-16 02:52:26 -0800]:
>>> >
>>> > I'd like to work on GNU CLISP for Google Summer of Code 2018.
>>>
>>> Welcome!
>>>
>>> > Specifically, I am interested in either implementing lock-free
>>> > hash-tables or
>>>
>>> I think getting MT to work has the highest priority ATM.
>>>
>>> > working on the backend, e.g. adding either a bytecode to C transpiler,
>>> > or using bytecode as an IR as a means to compile straight to native
>>> > code, either AOT or adding onto the existing JITC work. Another
>>> > possible idea I'm interested in would be to improve the byte-code
>>> > compiler itself: adding various optimizations not already done
>>>
>>> One compiler improvement that has been on the TODO list as long as I
>>> remember is
>>>
>>> Enhance the compiler so that it can inline local functions.
>>>
>>> (Using local function involves copying the closure object ATM, avoiding
>>> that would be very nice).
>>>
>>> > or (more ambitiously) to perform better type inference. As far as
>>> > I can tell, CLISP does not do as much type-informed optimizations as
>>> > other Common Lisp implmentations.
>>>
>>> I don't think type-informed optimizations would be easy to do in CLISP.
>>>
>>> > I am familiar with the internals of SBCL and know the details of Lisp
>>> > compilation fairly well, so compiler features rather than user-level
>>> > additions like library bindings would be more interesting to work on.
>>> > It would be great to hear thoughts from the CLISP maintainers on what
>>> > seems like a feasible GSoC goal.
>>>
>>> The success of your project depends on your commitment, which depends on
>>> your interest.
>>> Please pick whatever excites you.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>
> --
> Sam Steingold (http://sds.podval.org/) on darwin Ns 10.3.1561
> http://steingoldpsychology.com http://www.childpsy.net http://camera.org
> http://islamexposedonline.com http://thereligionofpeace.com
> Would you like a dozen wireless mice to feed the Python book you just bought?



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