bytecode-compiler

This project is built to explore how lexers, parsers, compilers and virtual machines work.

This project doesn't have any dependency and is built from scratch.

This project has unit tests for many of its modules.

Virtual Machine Overview

Virtual machine implementation is like below.

pub struct VirtualMachine {
    stack: Vec<Value>,
    register: [Value; REGISTER_SIZE],
    bytecode: Vec<u8>,
    program_counter: usize,
}

Language Overview

A sample program is below.

PUSH 10 
PUSH 40
ADD
RET

Opcodes

Opcode: PUSH

Pushes a value to the stack of the virtual machine.

PUSH <value> // type of value is `i64` 

Opcode: POP

Removes the last value from the stack.

POP 

Opcode: STORE

Stores the last value from the stack at specified index in the register of the virtual machine.

STORE <index> // type of index is `u8` 

Opcode: LOAD

Pushes the value at the specified index in the register to the stack.

LOAD <index> // type of index is `u8` 

Opcode: ADD

Removes the last 2 values from the stack. And pushes the sum of them back.

ADD

Opcode: SUB

Removes the last 2 values from the stack. And pushes the subtraction of them back.

SUB

Opcode: MUL

Removes the last 2 values from the stack. And pushes the multiplication of them back.

MUL

Opcode: DIV

Removes the last 2 values from the stack. And pushes the division of them back.

DIV

Opcode: MOD

Removes the last 2 values from the stack. And pushes the modulo of them back.

MOD

Opcode: RET

Stops the execution of the program. And returns the values in the stack.

RET

Development

Setup A Development Environment

You need Rust Language installed.

Or you can use Dev Containers to easily setup a development environment.

Clone The Repo

Run the command below to clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/BerzanXYZ/bytecode-compiler.git

Set Your Working Directory

Run the command below to set your working directory to bytecode-compiler/.

cd bytecode-compiler/

Build The Program

Run the command below to build the program.

cargo build --release

Run The Examples

Run the command below to run the examples.

./target/release/bytecode-compiler examples/adding.code # or examples/complex.code