Re: [Caml-list] off-brand use of ocaml bytecode

[Evgeny Roubinchtein <zhenya1007@gmail.com>]

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I know there are people on this list who are way more qualified to answer
these questions, but let me try.

On Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 8:12 PM, Hendrik Boom <hendrik@topoi.pooq.com>
wrote:

> Are there ny tools available that could be used to generate ocaml
> bytecode for other languages?
>

I don't think you will get a definitive answer on this list.   Here is a
thought experiment showing why.  Suppose J. Random Hacker decides to write
a compiler from WhizBangLang to OCaml byte code.  Under the assumption that
OCaml developers are not omniscient, the way they would learn about J.
Random Hacker's efforts is if s/he either: a) announces the new language in
some venue that OCaml developers watch or b) finds [what s/he believes are]
bugs in the OCaml byte code interpreter and files bug reports against it.
It isn't clear to me that our J Random Hacker must needs do either of those
things.

If I were to do that, by hand or otherwise, how would I interpret or
> compile it?
>

The ocamlrun program, shipped with the OCaml distribution and documented at
http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/manual-ocaml/runtime.html is the standard
interpreter for the OCaml byte code.

For the OCaml compiler, the byte code is a target (as opposed to a source
or an intermediate representation), so the existing OCaml tool chain does
not support compiling byte code, to the best of my knowledge (AFAIK
projects like Bucklescript and js_of_ocaml use the OCaml front-end and
intermediate representation, but supply a different compiler back end).

Would the ocaml run-time system we available -- things like the garbage
> collector, I/O libraries, etc.
>

I think that question is answered in the documentation of ocamlrun.   You
probably will also want to peruse
http://caml.inria.fr/pub/docs/manual-ocaml/intfc.html and specifically the
discussion of static and dynamic linking of C code with OCaml code.


> Is anyone else working of projects like this?


I am not entirely certain what the intended antecedent of "this" is here.
If "this" is "a compiler that targets OCaml byte code", then please see my
answer above.  If you feel that the current design of "ocamlrun for
standard primitives + the '-custom' flag to the OCaml compiler for
non-standard primitives" is failing to address a need, then a description
of the need that isn't being addressed would be a good starting point for
discussion. ;-)

Hope this helps
-- 
Best,
Zhenya

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