Previously in compiler basics:

1. lisp to assembly

2. user-defined functions and variables

3. LLVM

Next in compiler basics:

5. LLVM system calls

6. an x86 upgrade

In this post we'll extend the compiler's LLVM backend to support compiling conditionals such that we can support an implementation of the fibonacci algorithm.

Specifically we're aiming for the following:

$ cat tests/fib.lisp (def fib (n) (if (< n 2) n (+ (fib (- n 1)) (fib (- n 2))))) (def main () (fib 8)) $ node src/ulisp.js tests/fib.lisp $ ./build/prog $ echo $? 21

To do this we'll have to add the < , - and if built-ins.

All source code is available on Github.

Subtraction

This is the easiest to add since we already support addition. They are both arithmetic operations that produce an integer. We simply add a mapping of - to the LLVM instruction sub so our LLVM backend constructor ( src/backends/llvm.js ) looks like this:

... class Compiler { constructor() { this.outBuffer = []; this.primitiveFunctions = { def: this.compileDefine.bind(this), begin: this.compileBegin.bind(this), 'if': this.compileIf.bind(this), '+': this.compileOp('add'), '-': this.compileOp('sub'), ...

Less than

The < builtin is a logical operation. These are handled differently from arithmetic operations in LLVM IR. A logical operation looks like this:

%3 = icmp slt i32 %1, %2

This says that we're doing an integer comparison, icmp , (with signed less than, slt ) on the i32 integers in variables %1 and %2 .

We can shim this into our existing compileOp helper like so:

... class Compiler { constructor() { this.outBuffer = []; this.primitiveFunctions = { def: this.compileDefine.bind(this), begin: this.compileBegin.bind(this), 'if': this.compileIf.bind(this), '+': this.compileOp('add'), '-': this.compileOp('sub'), '<': this.compileOp('icmp slt'), ...

Conditionals

The last part we need to add is support for conditional execution of code at runtime. Assembly-like languages handle this with "jumps" and "labels". Jumping causes execution to continue at the address being jumped to (instead of just the line following the jump instruction). Labels give you a way of naming an address instead of having to calculate it yourself. Our code will look vaguely like this:

%test = icmp slt i32 %n, %1 br i1 %test, label %iftrue, label %iffalse iftrue: ; do true stuff iffalse: ; do false stuff ; do next stuff

The br instruction can jump (or branch) conditionally or unconditionally. This snippet demonstrates a conditional jump.

But there are a few things wrong with this pseudo-code. First off if the condition is true, execution will just continue on into the false section once finished. Second, LLVM IR actually requires all labels to end with a branch instruction. So we'll add a new label after the true and false section called ifresult and jump to it unconditionally after both.

%test = icmp slt i32 %n, %1 br i1 %test, label %iftrue, label %iffalse iftrue: ; do true stuff br label %ifresult iffalse: ; do false stuff br label %ifresult ifresult: ; do next stuff

Scope

One last thing we'll need to do before implementing the code generation for this is to update our Scope class to accept symbol prefixes so we can pass our labels through Scope to make sure they are unique but still have useful names.

... class Scope { ... symbol(prefix = 'sym') { const nth = Object.keys(this.locals).length + 1; return this.register(prefix + nth); } ...

compileIf

Now we can add a primitive function mapping if to a new compileIf helper and implement the helper.

... class Compiler { constructor() { this.outBuffer = []; this.primitiveFunctions = { def: this.compileDefine.bind(this), begin: this.compileBegin.bind(this), '+': this.compileOp('add'), '-': this.compileOp('sub'), '<': this.compileOp('icmp slt'), 'if': this.compileIf.bind(this), ... compileIf([test, thenBlock, elseBlock], destination, scope) { const testVariable = scope.symbol(); // Compile expression and branch this.compileExpression(test, testVariable, scope); const trueLabel = scope.symbol('iftrue'); const falseLabel = scope.symbol('iffalse'); this.emit(1, `br i1 %${testVariable}, label %${trueLabel}, label %${falseLabel}`); // Compile true section this.emit(0, trueLabel + ':'); this.compileExpression(thenBlock, destination, scope); const endLabel = scope.symbol('ifend'); this.emit(1, 'br label %' + endLabel); this.emit(0, falseLabel + ':'); // Compile false section this.compileExpression(elseBlock, destination, scope); this.emit(1, 'br label %' + endLabel); // Compile cleanup this.emit(0, endLabel + ':'); } ...

Note that this code generation sends the destination variable into both the true and false sections. Let's try it out.

$ node src/ulisp.js tests/fib.lisp llc: error: llc: build/prog.ll:19:3: error: multiple definition of local value named 'sym5' %sym5 = add i32 %sym15, %sym16 ^ child_process.js:665 throw err; ^ Error: Command failed: llc -o build/prog.s build/prog.ll llc: error: llc: build/prog.ll:19:3: error: multiple definition of local value named 'sym5' %sym5 = add i32 %sym15, %sym16

That's annoying. An unfortunate aspect of LLVM's required single-static assignment form is that you cannot reuse variable names within a function even if it is not possible for the variable to be actually reused.

To work around this we need to allocate memory on the stack, store the result in each true/false section in this location, and read from this location afterward to store it in the destination variable.

Stack memory instructions

LLVM IR gives us alloca to allocate memory on the stack, store to store memory at a stack address, and load to read the value at a stack address into a variable. Here's a simple example:

%myvar = add i32 42, 0 %stackaddress = alloca i32, align 4 store i32 %myvar, i32* %stackaddress, align 4 %newvar = load i32, i32* %stackaddress, align 4

Such that newvar is now 42.

compileIf again

Applying this back to our compileIf helper gives us:

... compileIf([test, thenBlock, elseBlock], destination, scope) { const testVariable = scope.symbol(); const result = scope.symbol('ifresult'); // Space for result this.emit(1, `%${result} = alloca i32, align 4`); // Compile expression and branch this.compileExpression(test, testVariable, scope); const trueLabel = scope.symbol('iftrue'); const falseLabel = scope.symbol('iffalse'); this.emit(1, `br i1 %${testVariable}, label %${trueLabel}, label %${falseLabel}`); // Compile true section this.emit(0, trueLabel + ':'); const tmp1 = scope.symbol(); this.compileExpression(thenBlock, tmp1, scope); this.emit(1, `store i32 %${tmp1}, i32* %${result}, align 4`); const endLabel = scope.symbol('ifend'); this.emit(1, 'br label %' + endLabel); this.emit(0, falseLabel + ':'); // Compile false section const tmp2 = scope.symbol(); this.compileExpression(elseBlock, tmp2, scope); this.emit(1, `store i32 %${tmp2}, i32* %${result}, align 4`); this.emit(1, 'br label %' + endLabel); // Compile cleanup this.emit(0, endLabel + ':'); this.emit(1, `%${destination} = load i32, i32* %${result}, align 4`); } ...

Trying it out

We run our compiler one more time:

$ node src/ulisp.js tests/fib.lisp $ ./build/prog $ echo $? 21

And get what we expect!

Next up

Tail call optimization

Lists and dynamic memory

Strings?

Foreign function calls?

Self-hosting?

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