lauf

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= lauf

ifdef::env-github[] image:https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jonathanmueller.dev%2Fproject%2Flauf%2Findex.json[Project Status,link=https://www.jonathanmueller.dev/project/] image:https://github.com/foonathan/lauf/workflows/CI/badge.svg[Build Status] endif::[]

lauf is work-in-progress bytecode interpreter with a C API. It is currently highly unstable, not ready for production use, and does not support anything other than a recent clang and Linux.

== Features

• Stack based bytecode API.
• Designed to quickly generate bytecode and execute it; suitable for e.g. evaluating constexpr functions in a C++ compiler.
• Extensible instruction set via lauf_builtin: things like add can be defined with your own semantics (e.g. overflow behavior).
• Support for fibers: cooperative user threads to implement stackful coroutines and generators.
• Fully sandboxed VM that supports low-level operations like pointer arithmetic.

== FAQ

How fast is it?:: On an M1 processor, recursive fib(35) takes about 325ms while the luajit interpreter (without JIT) takes about 535ms. Proper benchmarks are TODO.

Does it support just-in-time compilation?:: Currently, no. I have started implementing it, but it's a lot of work, and I'll focus on adding features first.

Why is it called lauf?:: "Lauf!" is German for "Run!" and lauf runs bytecode.

== Documentation

Currently no documentation besides header comments. Everything should be considered unstable.