Is it possible to run the output of rsc.exe?

[bentxt]

hello.scm

(display "helloooo")

./rsc.exe hello.scm | tee out.rvm
$di##,yalpsid,1gra##,,,,bir##;(i*>k!):lkl!*:ns:k:k:k:k:k:k:k:ki&vS6vS6vS6vS6vS3vS3vS,vS/!':lkmy

Is it possible to run the output of rsc.exe, something like rvm.exe out.rvm

[leo-ard]

Hi !

The simple answer is yes; but the more complicated one is sometimes. The first versions of Ribbit worked like this; having the compiler generate the bytecode and RVMs would implement a virtual machine that can read this bytecode and execute it. However, as the project improved, we started specializing the bytecode to the VM. For example, reordering or removing primitives, adding compression and these kind of features. This means that the bytecode is linked to a set of "features" that need to be enabled inside the RVM for it to be compatible. So, if you want to generate a bytecode and then execute it on a RVM, you have to make sure the set of features used to generate the bytecode and the set of features used inside the RVM match.

For now, we don't have a simple way to "sync" the features of an RVM. However, you can get around it. By default, the rvm target (implicit in your example) will generate a bytecode that is compatible with a classical RVM. If you go back enough in the project git history, you can probably find some classical RVMs that still work, for example, here is one that I worked on: https://github.com/udem-dlteam/ribbit/blob/leo-ard/document-contributing/src/host/py/hello.py.

Using one of the classical RVMs, you can generate the bytecode and then run it:

$ ./rsc.exe -l min hello.scm > hello.rvm # note the addition of `-l min`, display is not available by default.
$ curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/udem-dlteam/ribbit/refs/heads/leo-ard/document-contributing/src/host/py/hello.py > classic_rvm.py
$ vim classic_rvm.py # Modify the file to change the input="..." by the content of hello.rvm. You can also modify the rvm file to read from stdin to receive the bytecode
$ python3 classic_rvm.py
helloooo

I know this is a very manual process. We are working on finding a way to "sync" the rvms, or at least, to allow any rvm to be a "classical rvm". For now, you are better off using the -t <target> directly to have a working RVM in the given language.