file: job.t package: muf status: alpha
Algolic compilers (Algol, C, Pascal, Modula, Ada ...) are traditionally big black boxes of functionality locked away from the programmer. Lisp and Forth compilers are traditionally open frameworks which programmers are encouraged to use and extend. Muq MUF is implemented in the latter spirit.
Specifically, Forth traditionally implements the compiler using a standard architecture which is documented and open to the programmer, and provides a keyword by which the programmer may mark a particular function as being intended to run at compiletime rather than at runtime.
When the compiler encounters an invocation of such a function, it evaluates the function immediately in the context of the partly-compiled program, rather than assembling a call to invoke it at runtime. In essence, the programmer is allowed to dynamically extend the compiler.
Muq MUF defines a very different compileTime
architecture (since, again, it must prevent erroneous or
malicious code from crashing the interpreter), but provides
essentially the same facility: Any function which contains
the operator compileTime anywhere in its definition
compiles into an executable procedure with a special flag
set; When the MUF compiler encounters an invocation of
such a procedure, it evaluates the procedure immediately at
compiletime, rather than assembling a runtime call to it.
Since the compileTime architecture is not yet (version -1.0.0) stably defined, no examples of this are given here.
Note: The COMPILETIME flag is ignored by the inserver MUF compiler, which is the only compiler functional in the -1.0.0 Muq release.
Note: This operator will probably be replaced by a
define-macro: operator in a future release.
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