sts-q / blissc

BLISS-M compiler

README for the BLISS-M Compiler

This is the source package for the BLISS-M compiler, a portable cross-compiler for the BLISS programming language. Visit the project website for more information about BLISS-M.

Current Status

Work in progress. The front-end is mostly complete, with a fully functioning parser and macro facility. Back-end support is currently limited to LLVM and x86 CPUs (32- or 64-bit), with a limited amount of machine-specific support.

Prerequisites

Known to build on Mac OS X 10.8 and 10.9 (using Xcode 4.6 and later) and Ubuntu 16.04 and later (64-bit).

The code generator uses LLVM 3.9, 4.0 or 5.0, which you can download directly from llvm.org. On Mac OS, you can use the MacPorts llvm packages, although debugging is easier if you build against a copy of LLVM you have built yourself from source. On Ubuntu systems, you can install one of the llvm-dev packages using apt.

The build system uses Autoconf and Automake. On Mac OS X, you'll need to install these packages (e.g., through MacPorts).

Building the compiler

1. Clone the repository.

2. cd to the top-level source directory and run autoreconf -i to set up the autotools build.

3. If you want to build outside the source tree, cd to your build directory.

4. Run the configure script that was generated in step 2. If llvm-config is not in your PATH, use the --with-llvm-config option on configure to specify its location.

5. Run make to build the compiler.

6. Run make check to test the built compiler.

Running the compiler

The build will produce a program called blissc in your build directory. Run ./blissc --help for a description of the arguments and options.

Contributions

There is a lot more yet to do on this project! If you are interested in contributing, contact me (madisongh on GitHub, or by e-mail at matt at madison dot systems).

License

All sources are released under the BSD 2-clause license. See the LICENSE.TXT file for the license text.