xlang

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What Is It?

xlang is an high level language compiler based on Linux platform that emits Netwide Assembler(NASM) x86 assembly. You can develop simple programs as well as low-level applications such as writing OS components.

What Can It Do?

Through xlang, users can write programs according to the syntax of the language provided in Grammar and produce Intel x86 assembly language.

Simplifying the generated assembly by backend of the compiler that can be understand by anyone who wants to learn NASM assembly language.The generated assembly contain comments having line numbers, variables used, local variables location on stack and their sizes, expressions etc.

Features

At present, xlang has a set of core features as below:

• Support for using 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit registers.
• Support for simple expression assembly generation.
• Support for inline assembly.
• Support for pointers and arrays.
• Support for conditional statements such as if-else
• Support for loops such as while, for, do-while.
• Support for functions.
• Support for importing C language functions.
• Support for Abstract data types such as records.

Documentation

See doc directory for documentation. Or see the manual,

$ man xlang

Installation and Uninstallation

Dependency

GCC with C++11 compiler(g++)
Netwide Assembler(NASM)

Step 1: Getting the Source Code

You can download xlang by command:

$ git clone https://github.com/pritamzope/xlang.git
$ cd xlang

or you can get xlang via other ways you prefer at https://github.com/pritamzope/xlang

Step 2: Compile and Install

Installing xlang requires root(super user)'s privilege. Run command:

$ make
$ sudo make install

Uninstall

To uninstall the xlang, just run command:

$ cd xlang
$ sudo make remove

How to Start

Create a file with .x file extension. Write a xlang program(see doc or examples). Compile the program and Run it.

Example

Here's a simple addition program that imports C printf() function. Create a file named "hello_world.x" which reads as follow:

extern void printf(char*, int);

global void main()
{
    int a, b, sum;
    a = 10;
    b = 20;

    sum = a + b;

    printf("sum: %d\n", sum);
}

Then run xlang in the terminal

$ xlang hello_world.x

You can run the program after compilation:

$ ./a.out

To see the generated Intel x86 assembly, Then run xlang in the terminal with -S option.

$ xlang -S hello_world.x

It will create a new file "hello_world.asm" which reads as follows:

section .text
    extern printf
    global main

; [ function: main() ]
main:
    push ebp
    mov ebp, esp
    sub esp, 12    ; allocate space for local variables
    ; sum = [ebp - 12], dword
    ; b = [ebp - 4], dword
    ; a = [ebp - 8], dword
; line 6
    mov eax, 10
    mov dword[ebp - 8], eax
; line 7
    mov eax, 20
    mov dword[ebp - 4], eax
; line 9
    xor eax, eax
    xor edx, edx
    mov eax, dword[ebp - 8]  ; a
    mov ebx, dword[ebp - 4]  ; b
    add eax, ebx
    mov dword[ebp - 12], eax
; line: 11, func_call: printf
; line 11
    mov eax, dword[ebp - 12]  ; assignment sum
    push eax    ; param 2
    mov eax, string_val1
    push eax    ; param 1
    call printf
    add esp, 8    ; restore func-call params stack frame
._exit_main:
    mov esp, ebp
    pop ebp
    ret 

section .data
    string_val1 db 0x73,0x75,0x6D,0x3A,0x20,0x25,0x64,0x0A,0x00    ; 'sum: %d\n'

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