The Phosphor Compiler

A compiler for the Phosphor programming language.

module HelloWorld,

import Standard.Io;

function main ()
{
    Io.writeLine('Hello world!');
}

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Table of contents

• The Phosphor Compiler
  • Table of contents
  • Usage
    • External Dependencies
    • Compile the compiler
    • Get the standard library
    • Compile your code
    • Compilation targets
  • Description
    • Components
    • Examples

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Usage

External Dependencies

You need the following present on your system:

• For all target platforms:
  • Node.js >= 18.12.1
• Linux Amd64:
  • LLVM = 14.0.0
  • GNU x86_64-linux-gnu-as >= 2.38
  • GNU ld >= 2.38

Compile the compiler

npm install
npm run build

Get the standard library

You will need the standard library for compiling Phosphor code. You can find it here: https://github.com/PhosphorLang/StandardLibrary.
Follow the instructions there to compile the standard library.

Compile your code

Important: Note that the only currently supported platform by now is Linux on x86_64.

For compiling the hello world example, execute the following command:
(You have to replace <path to standard library> with the actual path, possibly ../StandardLibrary/bin if you have cloned the git repository of the standard library next to the repository of the compiler; and <platform> with the target platform, e.g. linuxAmd64.)

node bin/main.js -t <platform> -s <path to standard library> examples/helloWorld.ph helloWorld

Compilation targets

You can compile to any target platform from any supported platform.

Target platforms:

• Linux on x86_64: linuxAmd64

Supported platforms:

• Linux on x86_64

Removed target platforms:

• Linux on x86_64 without LLVM
• AVR

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Description

Components

1. Lexer (Frontend)
   • Converts a file string into a token list by lexical analysis.
   • Result: Token list
2. Parser (Frontend)
   • Converts a token list into a syntax tree by syntactical analysis.
   • Result: Syntax tree
3. Connector (Frontend)
   • Converts a syntax tree into a semantic tree by semantic analysis.
   • Result: Semantic tree
4. Semantic Lowerer (Middleend)
   • Lowers the complex semantic tree into a simpler set of semantic nodes (i.e. desugaring).
   • Result: Lowered tree
5. Intermediate Lowerer (Middleend)
   • Further lowers the lowered (semantic) tree into intermediate code which only consists of instructions.
   • Result: Intermediate code
6. Transpiler (Backend)
   • Transpiles the intermediate code into platform specific Assembly.
   • Result: Assembly code (i.a. via LLVM-IR)
7. Assembler (Backend)
   • Creates an object file from the Assembly.
   • Result: Object file
8. Linker (Backend)
   • Links the object files into an executable.
   • Result: Executable file

Examples

You can find a full example of all features here.

More example are in the examples directory;