[swift-dev] Implementing New Syntax in Swift

Mon Jan 18 11:18:25 CST 2016

Exactly. I'm just trying to understand how someone would go about adding
new syntax to the language
On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 9:13 AM Svein Halvor Halvorsen <
svein.h at lvor.halvorsen.cc> wrote:

> So you want a completely new kind of literal, that is neither a string,
> integer, float, etc.
> Kinda like the special array and dictionary literals?
>
> 2016-01-18 18:10 GMT+01:00 Seth Friedman <sethfri at gmail.com>:
>
>> Sure, but this is a completely arbitrary, simple example designed to
>> illustrate how to add new syntax to Swift. Conforming to
>> IntegerLiteralConvertible would defeat the point of the exercise.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Seth
>> On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 8:55 AM Svein Halvor Halvorsen <
>> svein.h at lvor.halvorsen.cc> wrote:
>>
>>> Can't you just make your SuperInt conform to IntergerLiteralConvertible
>>> and initialise it like so:
>>>
>>> let superIntExample: SuperInt = 100
>>>
>>> sv.
>>>
>>> 2016-01-18 1:13 GMT+01:00 Seth Friedman via swift-dev <
>>> swift-dev at swift.org>:
>>>
>>>> Created SR-569 <https://bugs.swift.org/browse/SR-569> to track this
>>>>
>>>> Thanks!
>>>>
>>>> Seth
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Jan 10, 2016 at 4:18 PM, Seth Friedman <sethfri at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Changing the subject of this thread since it's now an entirely
>>>>> different question than what I originally asked. Hopefully this will result
>>>>> in better visibility in getting an answer as well.
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Seth
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, Jan 10, 2016 at 4:16 PM Seth Friedman <sethfri at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks Jordan!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Here's a specific flow I'm interested in understanding. Note that
>>>>>> this is just a wild example that would help me better understand parts of
>>>>>> the compiler I'm interested in rather than any sort of proposal for the
>>>>>> language.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Let's say I have a type called SuperInt that has some cool integer
>>>>>> operations that would be applicable and useful to everyone writing Swift.
>>>>>> It's a given that this makes sense to be in the Swift language, and people
>>>>>> are going to be using it so often that it makes sense to create a new
>>>>>> literal syntax for this type. I'd like users to be able to instantiate a
>>>>>> SuperInt with the following:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> let superIntExample = %^100^%
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Crazy syntax for a crazy example, but I wanted to make sure it's not
>>>>>> something that's already in Swift. In this example, my SuperInt would be
>>>>>> instantiated with a value of 100.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'd like to know the parts of the Swift compiler I would need to
>>>>>> understand and change to implement this new type with its new syntax.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I really this question requires a lengthy answer, but I think it
>>>>>> would make a great start to a Swift internals manual (which I agree with
>>>>>> you would be a fantastic idea).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Anyone's help would be much appreciated!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> Seth
>>>>>> On Fri, Dec 18, 2015 at 5:25 PM Jordan Rose <jordan_rose at apple.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi, Seth. Sorry for not getting back to you sooner! I don't think we
>>>>>>> have anything exactly like this, but there's *sort* of a sequence
>>>>>>> diagram in Chris and Joe's talk at the LLVM conference, "Swift's
>>>>>>> High-Level IR <https://youtu.be/Ntj8ab-5cvE>". I'd say it looks
>>>>>>> something like this:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 1. Parsing
>>>>>>> 2. Semantic analysis, including type-checking
>>>>>>> 3. SIL generation
>>>>>>> 4. Mandatory SIL passes
>>>>>>> 5. SIL optimization
>>>>>>> 6. LLVM IR generation
>>>>>>> 7. LLVM optimization
>>>>>>> 8. LLVM output (usually including machine code generation and
>>>>>>> writing to a .o file)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> …with the last two handled pretty much completely by LLVM
>>>>>>> <http://llvm.org> itself, and not customized by Swift.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> We probably ought to have something like Clang's "Internals
>>>>>>> <http://clang.llvm.org/docs/InternalsManual.html>" manual
>>>>>>> (hopefully better), which lays out the major concepts in each library. As
>>>>>>> it is we have various concepts that are documented very well, either in
>>>>>>> docs/ or in header comments, and others which are just arcane knowledge in
>>>>>>> the heads of the implementers. This is not a good thing.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The "Contributing <https://swift.org/contributing/>" page on the
>>>>>>> website lists a handful of ways to get involved; another one we're still
>>>>>>> bringing up is issues with the "StarterBug" label in JIRA. These are
>>>>>>> intended to be bugs that a newcomer could use as a goal-oriented way to
>>>>>>> learn about one part of the project.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Of course, we're happy to answer any specific questions you might
>>>>>>> have (and this list is probably the right place for them). It's the general
>>>>>>> ones that are hard. :-)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Jordan
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Dec 16, 2015, at 2:36, Seth Friedman <sethfri at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks Jordan!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Another question if anyone has some time: I'm really interested in
>>>>>>> contributing to the project, but given that I don't have a ton of
>>>>>>> experience with compilers, I'm having a really hard time following the flow
>>>>>>> of the program. I understand that the high level flow is lexing, parsing,
>>>>>>> sema, and building the AST. However, tracing through the actual functions
>>>>>>> in the compiler prove much more difficult due to the amount of
>>>>>>> indirection/metaprogramming.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Are there any sort of sequence diagrams that I haven't found yet? If
>>>>>>> anyone could let me know of any good resources you know of, that would be
>>>>>>> great. I'm sure this would also be of use to people in my boat that want to
>>>>>>> help but don't know how to start.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>> Seth
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 9:04 PM Jordan Rose <jordan_rose at apple.com>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hi, Seth. I think you're getting Clang / swift-clang mixed up with
>>>>>>>> swiftc / swift. Clang is not the Swift compiler; the Swift compiler lives
>>>>>>>> in the "swift" repo. Swift depends on Clang for its interoperation with C
>>>>>>>> and Objective-C.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> A *lot* of the compiler encodes information about Optional, but
>>>>>>>> most of it stems from ASTContext.h and ASTContext.cpp, which has dedicated
>>>>>>>> entrypoints for getting Optional, Optional.None, and Optional.Some.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hope this helps,
>>>>>>>> Jordan
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Dec 8, 2015, at 17:59 , Seth Friedman via swift-dev <
>>>>>>>> swift-dev at swift.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In Optional.swift in the stdlib, there's a comment that says "The
>>>>>>>> compiler has special knowledge of Optional<Wrapped>, including the fact
>>>>>>>> that it is an enum with cases named 'None' and 'Some'."
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> What I'm trying to understand is: If I wanted to implement the
>>>>>>>> optional type from scratch, what would be the process I would go through?
>>>>>>>> I've scoured the swift-clang project and can't seem to find any reference
>>>>>>>> to optionals or even Swift explicitly. I discovered nullability attributes
>>>>>>>> and am hypothesizing that an expression of something like "Type?" is
>>>>>>>> somehow mapped to an attribute, but I'm really just stumbling around in the
>>>>>>>> dark.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> In terms of what I've tried, I've gone through a lot of the source
>>>>>>>> in the swift-clang lib/Basic and lib/AST directories, and I've read through
>>>>>>>> the "Clang CFE Internals Manual" on the Clang website.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Help is much appreciated!
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Thanks in advance,
>>>>>>>> Seth
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> swift-dev mailing list
>>>>>>>> swift-dev at swift.org
>>>>>>>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-dev
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Seth Friedman
>>>> *Software Development Engineer II*
>>>> *Amazon.com*
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> swift-dev mailing list
>>>> swift-dev at swift.org
>>>> https://lists.swift.org/mailman/listinfo/swift-dev
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>
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