2002-08-12 Tim Coleman <tim@timcoleman.com>

[mono.git] / web / c-sharp

diff --git a/web/c-sharp b/web/c-sharp
index 8bdf91050d4a5dc86de503e7ad980fb38991e0cc..fa4dad1d732fc629c355460e4055f62dd3ff55f6 100644 (file)
--- a/web/c-sharp
+++ b/web/c-sharp
@@ -1,20 +1,46 @@
 * MCS: The Ximian C# compiler
 
 * MCS: The Ximian C# compiler
 

-       MCS began as an experiment to learn the features of C# by
-       writing a large C# program.  MCS is currently able to compile
-       small C# programs.  
+       MCS is currently able to compile itself and many more C#
+       programs (there is a test suite included that you can use).

 
 

-       All type, field, method, delegates definitions are now emitted
-       and the body of constructors and methods is being generated
-       for a subset of the language.  Although MCS can parse itself,
-       it cant not yet compile itself.  Most statements are generated
-       correctly and about 80% of the C# expressions are supported.
+       We are in feature completion mode right now.  There are still
+       a couple of areas that are not covered by the Mono compiler, but
+       they are very very few at this point.

 
 

-       Work is progressing quickly on various fronts in the C#
-       compiler.
+       MCS was able to parse itself on April 2001, MCS compiled itself
+       for the first time on December 28 2001.  MCS became self hosting
+       on January 3rd, 2002. 

 
 

-       A test suite is being built currently to track the progress of
-       the compiler.
+       The Mono Runtime and the Mono execution engine were able to make
+       our compiler self hosting on March 12, 2002.
+
+       A test suite is maintained to track the progress of
+       the compiler and various programs are routinely compiled and
+       ran.
+
+** Obtaining MCS
+
+       The Mono C# compiler is part of the `mcs' module in the Mono CVS
+       you can get it from our <a href="anoncvs.html">Anonymous CVS</a> server,
+       or you can get nightly <a href="download.html">download page</a>.
+
+** Running MCS
+
+       MCS is written in C# and uses heavily the .NET APIs.  MCS runs
+       on Linux (with the Mono runtime) and Windows (with the .NET
+       framework runtime)
+
+** Reporting Bugs in MCS
+
+       When you report a bug, try to provide a small test case that would
+       show the error so we can include this as part of the Mono C# regression
+       test suite.
+
+       If the bug is an error or a warning that we do not flag, write
+       a sample program called `csXXXX.cs' where XXXX is the code number
+       that is used by the Microsoft C# compiler that illustrates the 
+       problem.  That way we can also do regression tests on the invalid
+       input.  

 
 ** Phases of the compiler
 
 
 ** Phases of the compiler
 


@@ -47,24 +73,47 @@
                  have to postpone this decision until the above steps
                  are finished.
 
                  have to postpone this decision until the above steps
                  are finished.
 

-               * Code generation: The compiler recently started generating IL 
-                 executables that contain interfaces.  Work is
-                 progressing in other areas.
-
-                 The code generation is done through the System.Reflection.Emit API. 
+               * Code generation: The code generation is done through
+                 the System.Reflection.Emit API.

        </ul>
 
        </ul>
 

+** CIL Optimizations.
+
+       The compiler performs a number of simple optimizations on its input:
+       constant folding (this is required by the C# language spec) and 
+       can perform dead code elimination.
+
+       Other more interesting optimizations like hoisting are not possible
+       at this point since the compiler output at this point does not
+       generate an intermediate representation that is suitable to
+       perform basic block computation.  
+
+       Adding an intermediate layer to enable the basic block
+       computation to the compiler should be a simple task, but we
+       are considering having a generic CIL optimizer.  Since all the
+       information that is required to perform basic block-based
+       optimizations is available at the CIL level, we might just skip
+       this step altogether and have just a generic IL optimizer that
+       would perform hoisting on arbitrary CIL programs, not only
+       those produced by MCS.  
+
+       If this tool is further expanded to perform constant folding
+       (not needed for our C# compiler, as it is already in there)
+       and dead code elimination, other compiler authors might be
+       able to use this generic CIL optimizer in their projects
+       reducing their time to develop a production compiler. 
+

 <a name="tasks">
 ** Current pending tasks
 
        Simple tasks:
 
        <ul>
 <a name="tasks">
 ** Current pending tasks
 
        Simple tasks:
 
        <ul>

-               * PInvoke declarations are not supported.
-
-               * Extern declarations are missing.
+               * Redo the way we deal with built-in operators.
+       </ul>

 
 

-               * Pre-processing is not supported.
+       Larger tasks:
+       <ul>

 
                * Jay does not work correctly with `error'
                  productions, making parser errors hard to point.  It
 
                * Jay does not work correctly with `error'
                  productions, making parser errors hard to point.  It


@@ -74,41 +123,12 @@
                  Nick Drochak has started a project on SourceForge for this.
                  You can find the project at: <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/jb2csharp/">
                  http://sourceforge.net/projects/jb2csharp/</a>
                  Nick Drochak has started a project on SourceForge for this.
                  You can find the project at: <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/jb2csharp/">
                  http://sourceforge.net/projects/jb2csharp/</a>

-       </ul>
-
-       Larger tasks:
-
-       <ul>
-               * Implement constant expression evaluator.
-
-               * Implement constant declarations.
-
-               * Implement enumerations.
-       </ul>
-
-       Interesting and Fun hacks to the compiler:
-
-       <ul>
-               * Finishing the JB port from Java to C#.  If you are
-                 interested in working on this, please contact the project admin on SourceForge:
-                 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/jb2csharp/">
-                 http://sourceforge.net/projects/jb2csharp/</a>
-
-                 More on JB at: <a href="http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~dennis/software/jb.html">
-                 http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~dennis/software/jb.html</a>
-
-                 JB will allow us to move from the Berkeley Yacc
-                 based Jay to a Bison-based compiler (better error
-                 reporting and recovery).

 
                * Semantic Analysis: Return path coverage and
                  initialization before use coverage are two great
                  features of C# that help reduce the number of bugs
                  in applications.  It is one interesting hack.
 
 
                * Semantic Analysis: Return path coverage and
                  initialization before use coverage are two great
                  features of C# that help reduce the number of bugs
                  in applications.  It is one interesting hack.
 

-               * Enum resolutions: it is another fun hack, as enums can be defined 
-                 in terms of themselves (<tt>enum X { a = b + 1, b = 5 }</tt>). 
-

        </ul>
 
 ** Questions and Answers
        </ul>
 
 ** Questions and Answers


@@ -137,6 +157,10 @@ Q: If your C# compiler is written in C#, how do you plan on getting
    We will do this through an implementation of the CLI Virtual
    Execution System for Unix (our JIT engine). 
 
    We will do this through an implementation of the CLI Virtual
    Execution System for Unix (our JIT engine). 
 

+   Our JIT engine is working for the purposes of using the compiler.
+   The supporting class libraries are being worked on to fully support
+   the compiler.
+

 Q: Do you use Bison?
 
 A: No, currently I am using Jay which is a port of Berkeley Yacc to
 Q: Do you use Bison?
 
 A: No, currently I am using Jay which is a port of Berkeley Yacc to