Embeddable VM runtime for ANSI C

Question

I'm looking for a Virtual Machine runtime environment that is embeddable in any ANSI C code.

I have designed a syntax for a functional language that looks a lot like a stripped version of CoffeeScript. Now I want to write a compiler for this language, but I don't have know what VM I should go for.

The key function for my language is support for closures and of course a sane GC. It should be fairly small.

I have been working with Lua in a couple of projects and I'm investigating the Lua 5.1 VM. However, it seems to be tightly coupled with Luas concept of tables which my language wouldn't utilize.

Any suggestions?

Most people go for LLVM (and for good reasons). But that's not ANSI C. — Šimon Tóth, Aug 05 '11 at 08:41
But is LLVM embeddable? Can I for example create a native C application that hosts a LLVM environment? — Fredrik Andersson, Aug 05 '11 at 08:45
As I said, it's not ANSI C. It's C++ actually. And yes, it is embeddable, it's a library actually. — Šimon Tóth, Aug 05 '11 at 08:50
You could write one? I doubt there is anything off the shelf that is particularly suited to this task. Actually see my answer later. Might solve it! — Deleted, Aug 05 '11 at 09:14

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 05 '11 at 13:09

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There's also the Neko VM.

answered Aug 05 '11 at 13:09

Christoph

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Great! I will investigate Neko aswell! – Fredrik Andersson Aug 05 '11 at 14:22
I have investigated Neko closely. Seems to have some problems regarding meaningful errormessages in the VM. Other then that it seems to be spot on! I'll take a closer look at parrot. – Fredrik Andersson Aug 09 '11 at 07:21

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 05 '11 at 09:16

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Have you looked at Parrot?

http://www.parrot.org/

answered Aug 05 '11 at 09:16

Deleted

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I will absolutely checkout Parrot! – Fredrik Andersson Aug 05 '11 at 10:17

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 07 '12 at 00:14

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Another option might be TinyVM which is very small, and it's codebase is surprisingly clean. The original project also has a forked branch that improves on performance: FastVM. Both are pretty powerful for their size, and could easily be extended to best fit your needs.

Hope this helps! :)

answered Feb 07 '12 at 00:14

Miguel

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Definitely an interesting project! Will check it out. – Fredrik Andersson Feb 08 '12 at 15:05

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 07 '12 at 00:25

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Besides many other alternatives, have a look at the squirrel progamming language and its VM.

answered Feb 07 '12 at 00:25

Frunsi

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Embeddable VM runtime for ANSI C

4 Answers4