Re: [Caml-list] The Bytecode Interpreter...

[Jonathan Roewen <jonathan.roewen@gmail.com>]

Hi Again,

I have a few more questions about the toplevel/bytecode interpreter.

I've noted in startup.c that caml_main tries to open itself, and do
some sort of work on the file. The problem is that I want to be able
to run the ocaml toplevel on the bare metal (and later extend it into
an operating system of sorts). I've seen there is a caml_startup_code
function in startup.c that appears to setup the caml environment
without reading itself: however, how do I find all the values to pass
to it?

Alternatively, another idea, which I'd like some feedback on for suitability is:
- load the 'kernel' as a module as well as the kernel itself (so I
suppose mapped into memory twice).
- provide some dummy C functions that a) let us open the 'kernel', and
b) provide read-only access to the file.
- let caml_main use this in-memory representation of the 'kernel' to
start itself up.

I'm wondering what kind of other obstacles would also affect my desire
to achieve this as well.

One last thing =) How does the toplevel get initialised, etc., and
started running? Does it depend on ocamlrun being in the path, and
being able to load it into memory or something?

Jonathan