Company
Date Published
Author
Andrew Youngwerth
Word count
3791
Language
English
Hacker News points
2

Summary

### Summary of wispy compiler in 1 paragraph` The wispy compiler is an open-source implementation that compiles wispy, a new WebAssembly language. The compilation process involves several phases, including parsing, lexing, and code generation. The `compile` function takes the abstract syntax tree (AST) as input and converts it to a set of executable instructions in WebAssembly format using the binaryen compiler toolchain. The compiler also handles tricky optimizations like dead-code removal and code folding. It generates machine code by calling the block function on binaryen, which takes a block name, an array of compiled expressions, and a return type as input. The `compileFunction` function is used to compile function definitions, while the `registerStandardFunctions` function maps primitive WebAssembly instructions to names for reference within wispy. After compilation, the resulting WebAssembly module can be executed by a host Node.js/v8 runtime.