asc native

This is an experiment compiling the AssemblyScript compiler to a native executable by first compiling the AssemblyScript compiler to WebAssembly using the AssemblyScript compiler compiled to JavaScript, then converting the emitted Wasm binary to C using wasm2c and compiling it to native along a native frontend feeding it teh codez.

Caveats: Since AssemblyScript links with Binaryen compiled to WebAssembly, and as such assumes 32-bit pointers everywhere, we need to compile Binaryen to 32-bit, in turn compiling the entire thing to a 32-bit executable.

Status: It compiles and runs but doesn't yet feed teh codez, producing the following perfectly expected abort:

abort: Missing standard library component: ArrayBuffer in src/program.ts at line 1467:19

Building on Windows

Why? Because unnecessary complexity and stacking layers is kinda the theme here. May also work on *nixes with -T and -A amended.

Step 0: Make sure you have

Clang build tools for Visual Studio. I used VS 2019 and checkboxed the feature.
CMake, Clang/LLVM, Node.js
All the submodules

Step 1: Build the Binaryen submodule (32-bit)

cd binaryen
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -T ClangCL -A Win32
cmake --build .

Step 2: Build the WABT submodule

cd wabt
git submodule update --init
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build .

Step 3: Build the AssemblyScript compiler to Wasm

cd assemblyscript
npm install
npm run asbuild:untouched

Step 4: Transpile the AssemblyScript compiler compiled to Wasm to C

wabt/bin/wasm2c assemblyscript/out/assemblyscript.untouched.wasm -o src/assemblyscript.c

Step 5: Post-process the generated C sources. Links binaryen.xy imports to the Binaryen DLL.

node scripts/post.js

Step 6: Build the project itself (32-bit)

mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -T ClangCL -A Win32
cmake --build .

Step 7: Go find your shiny asc.exe.

dcodeIO/asc-native

asc native

Building on Windows