/simulanics/XojoScript

An open-source XojoScript compiler and virtual machine for the Xojo language. Compile and Run XojoScript at native C++ machine-code speed, on any system or architecture supporting C++ compilers [GNU/GCC/G++/clang]. This includes 99.9% of devices - even the web [using emscripten]! 🙏

XojoScript Bytecode Compiler and Virtual Machine 🚀

Welcome to the XojoScript Bytecode Compiler and Virtual Machine! This project is a bytecode compiler and virtual machine written in C++ that handles XojoScript execution—including functions, classes, and more - entirely cross-platform. It compiles XojoScript into bytecode and executes it on a cross-platform custom virtual machine. 🤯

Features ✨

• Cross-platform Plugin Support: Compile and place plugins in a "libs" directory located beside the xojoscript executable. Plugins will automatically be found, loaded, and ready for use in your xojoscripts.
• Cross-platform Library Support: Load system-level APIs using 'Declare' and use them as you would in Xojo.
• Function Support: Compile and execute user-defined functions and built-in ones. Overloading of functions is permitted.
• Module Support: Create XojoScript Modules. ("extends" is in the works).
• Class & Instance Support: Create classes, define methods, and instantiate objects.
• Intrinsic Types: Handles types like Color, Integer, Double, Boolean, Variant and String.
• Bytecode Execution: Runs compiled bytecode on a custom VM.
• Debug Logging: Step-by-step debug logs to trace lexing, parsing, compiling, and execution.
• Intuitive Syntax: Matches Xojo language syntax (Currently, functions require parenthesis - this is strictly for debugging purposes as other datatypes are added and tested. Parenthesis will be optional at a later date, as in Xojo's implementation, for interoperability and consistency.)
• Console / Web / GUI: Build all sorts of applications from a single code-base.
• Open Source: Released under the MIT License.

Getting Started 🏁

Prerequisites

• A C++ compiler with C++17 support (e.g. g++, clang++)
• Git
• libffi (https://github.com/libffi/libffi) - handles cross-platform plugin and system-level API access.
• (Optional) Rust/Go/C#/etc - to build plugins using other languages than C++

Installation

1. Clone the Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/simulanics/XojoScript
   cd XojoScript

Automated Building

Use the included build_xojoscript.bat / ./build_xojoscript.sh and build_plugins.bat / ./build_plugins.sh scripts to automatically build and compile a release version for testing. Debugging is always available using the debug trace and profiling commandline flag (see below).

Linux users will need to chmod the build directory or individual scripts using:

chmod -R 755 ./XojoScript

chmod 755 build_xxxx.sh

Otherwise "Permission denied" error will appear when attempting to execute the build scripts.

Manual Building

2. Compile the Project:

For example, using g++:

g++ -std=c++17 -o xojoscript xojoscript.cpp -lffi

With speed optimizations:

g++ -o xojoscript xojoscript.cpp -lffi -O3 -march=native -mtune=native -flto

3. Prepare Your Script:

Create a file named test.txt with your XojoScript code. For example:

Function addtwonumbers(num1 As Integer, num2 As Integer) As Integer
    Return num1 + num2
End Function

Public Sub Main()
    Dim result As Integer = addtwonumbers(2, 3)
    Print(str(result))
End Sub

Main() is reserved for GUI applications primarily, but is not strictly for this purpose. Xojo's implementation of XojoScript does not contain this natively, but this Sub() acts as each OS XojoScript's program entry-point if supplied, and will be executed before any other top-down code.

4. Run the Compiler on a script:

./xojoscript --s filename

Debugging 🔍

Debug trace and profile logging is enabled via the DEBUG_MODE "--d true/false" commandline flag. Set it to true or false to enable debugging:

./xojoscript --s filename --d true > debugtrace.log

This will output detailed logs for lexing, parsing, compiling, and execution.

For optimal analysis, it is advisable to save debug trace profiles to a file, as even basic program traces can reach hundreds of megabytes due to the detailed logging of each logical step, along with any potential errors or warnings.

Contributing 🤝

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to open issues or submit pull requests. Your help is appreciated! 🎉

License 📄

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

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🤗 Happy Coding! 😄