diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/docs/index.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/docs/index.md | 45 |
1 files changed, 45 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/docs/index.md b/doc/docs/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2bebe4 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/docs/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +vim: noexpandtab tabstop=2 shiftwidth=2 +--- + +# Snug + +Snug is a lazy functional programming language. It is designed to be tiny in +memory footprint of both generated code and run time memory use, so that it can +run on embedded systems. + +The current goal is to be able to run a Snug compiler written in Snug on a +[PIC32MZ2048EFG064][]. This microcontroller has 2MB flash memory, 512KB SRAM, +and a MIPS32 instruction set (with microMIPS code compression). + +The end goal is as follows: + +1. The microcontroller has access to a flash drive or SD card with a basic file + system. +2. The kernel contains a basic terminal application and can run programs from + the external memory. To this end it dynamically loads these programs into + RAM and executes from RAM. +3. There is an application to edit text files. +4. The Snug compiler is just one of these programs, and was compiled from Snug + itself. It outputs human-readable assembly code. +5. A basic assembler (presumably written in C) can turn this output into object + code. +6. A linker (presumably written in C) can link several object code files + together into an executable program. +7. Combining steps 3-6, possibly using a `make`-like program, enables the user + to edit, compile, and run new Snug programs entirely on the embedded system. + +Before we can accomplish this some intermediate steps are required: + +1. At first the compiler is written in [Clean][], and we use an assembler and + linker on a PC. This way an executable compiler can be built entirely on a + PC. +2. The next step is to test how much RAM the compiler requires. It should be + able to compile reasonably large programs with only 512KB of RAM (and + actually less, because part of the RAM must be reserved for the kernel and + to hold the program itself). +3. After this a basic assembler and linker can be written. If these are written + in C it is easily possible to test them on a PC. + +[Clean]: https://clean-lang.org +[PIC32MZ2048EFG064]: https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/PIC32MZ2048EFG064 |