phasm/README.md
2023-01-07 16:24:50 +01:00

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phasm
=====
Elevator pitch
--------------
A programming language, that looks like Python, handles like Haskell,
and compiles directly to WebAssembly.
Project state
-------------
This is a hobby project for now. Use at your own risk.
How to run
----------
You should only need make and python3. Currently, we're working with python3.10,
since we're using the python ast parser, it might not work on other versions.
To run the examples:
```sh
make examples
```
To run the tests:
```sh
make test
```
To run the linting and type checking:
```sh
make lint typecheck
```
To compile a Phasm file:
```sh
python3.10 -m phasm source.py output.wat
```
Additional required tools
-------------------------
At the moment, the compiler outputs WebAssembly text format. To actually
get a binary, you will need the wat2wasm tool[6].
Example
-------
For more examples, see the examples directory.
```py
def helper(n: u64, a: u64, b: u64) -> u64:
if n < 1:
return a + b
return helper(n - 1, a + b, a)
@exported
def fib(n: u64) -> u64:
if n == 0:
return 0
if n == 1:
return 1
return helper(n - 1, 0, 1)
```
Gotcha's
--------
- When importing and exporting unsigned values to WebAssembly, they will become
signed, as WebAssembly has no native unsigned type. You may need to cast
or reinterpret them.
- Currently, Phasm files have the .py extension, which helps with syntax
highlighting, that might change in the future.
Contributing
------------
At this time, we're mostly looking for use cases for WebAssembly, other than to
compile existing C code and running them in the browser. The goal of WebAssembly
is to enable high-performance applications on web pages[5]. Though most people
seem to use it to have existing code run in the browser.
If you have a situation where WebAssembly would be useful for it's speed, we're
interested to see what you want to use it for.
Also, if you are trying out Phasm, and you're running into a limitation, we're
interested in a minimal test case that shows what you want to achieve and how
Phasm currently fails you.
Name origin
-----------
- p from python
- ha from Haskell
- asm from WebAssembly
References
----------
[1] https://www.python.org/
[2] https://www.haskell.org/
[3] https://webassembly.org/
[4] https://www.w3.org/TR/wasm-core-1/
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WebAssembly&oldid=1103639883
[6] https://github.com/WebAssembly/wabt