I continue to hack on the Epoch compiler, slowly shaping it into a powerhouse of executable binary generation. So far I've gotten the program string table and DLL import table built in a flexible and extensible manner. This is the first step towards getting actual code generation back online at full capacity.

Now that I can link to DLLs from native Epoch programs, I can start replacing the old runtime library with a newer, cleaner, and slimmer version. As part of the process, I'm rewriting the LLVM bindings, which means that code generation is going to be broken for a while, at least in part.

A few minutes ago, the compiler generated a rudimentary .EXE that imports the new Epoch runtime DLL and calls a function in it. This is all completely flexible - none of the data is hardcoded or hackish to make it work. This is in direct contrast to the old method of building Epoch .EXEs, which basically amounted to hardcoding a tiny program that launched the main program after JIT compiling it with LLVM.


My goal here is to do absolutely everything I can in Epoch, and slice out as much C++ code as possible. I'm still playing around with ideas in my head for how to make the LLVM bindings as slim as possible, but it shouldn't be hard to seriously cut down on the amount of fragile C++ hackery being done there.


It's kind of annoying how much sheer effort I can dump into a project like this, and then be able to summarize the entire affair with a single sentence. I'd rail on about all the detailed hacking and prodding that went into making this happen, but it's actually pretty boring and involves a lot of profanity. So instead, I'll just leave you with a short journal entry.


And now to bed, and now to bed.