mirror of
https://github.com/nim-lang/Nim.git
synced 2025-12-29 09:24:36 +00:00
145 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
145 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
===========================================
|
|
Questions and Answers
|
|
===========================================
|
|
|
|
|
|
General
|
|
=======
|
|
|
|
What is Nimrod?
|
|
---------------
|
|
|
|
Nimrod is a statically typed, imperative programming language that tries to
|
|
give the programmer ultimate power without compromises on runtime efficiency.
|
|
This means it focuses on compile-time mechanisms in all their
|
|
various forms. Beneath a nice infix/indentation based syntax with a
|
|
powerful (AST based, hygienic) macro system lies a semantic model that supports
|
|
a soft realtime GC on thread local heaps. Asynchronous message passing is used
|
|
between threads, so no "stop the world" mechanism is necessary. An unsafe
|
|
shared memory heap is also provided for the increased efficiency that results
|
|
from that model.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Why is it named Nimrod?
|
|
-----------------------
|
|
You have to find out for yourself. If you don't find a tongue-in-cheek
|
|
interpretation you will have to look harder.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Why yet another programming language?
|
|
-------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Nimrod is one of the very few *programmable* statically typed languages, and
|
|
one of the even fewer that produces native binaries that require no
|
|
runtime or interpreter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
What is Nimrod's take on concurrency?
|
|
-------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Nimrod primarily focusses on thread local (and garbage collected) heaps and
|
|
asynchronous message passing between threads. Each thread has its own GC, so no
|
|
"stop the world" mechanism is necessary. An unsafe shared memory heap is also
|
|
provided.
|
|
|
|
Future versions will additionally include a GC "per thread group"
|
|
and Nimrod's type system will be enhanced to accurately model this shared
|
|
memory heap.
|
|
|
|
|
|
How is Nimrod licensed?
|
|
-----------------------
|
|
|
|
The Nimrod compiler and the library are MIT licensed.
|
|
This means that you can use any license for your own programs developed with
|
|
Nimrod.
|
|
|
|
|
|
How stable is Nimrod?
|
|
---------------------
|
|
|
|
The compiler is in development and some important features are still missing.
|
|
However, the compiler is quite stable already: It is able to compile itself
|
|
and a substantial body of other code. Until version 1.0.0 is released,
|
|
minor incompatibilities with older versions of the compiler will be introduced.
|
|
|
|
|
|
How fast is Nimrod?
|
|
-------------------
|
|
Benchmarks show it to be comparable to C. Some language features (methods,
|
|
closures, message passing) are not yet as optimized as they could and will be.
|
|
The only overhead Nimrod has over C is the GC which has been tuned
|
|
for years but still needs some work.
|
|
|
|
|
|
What about JVM/CLR backends?
|
|
----------------------------
|
|
|
|
A JVM backend is almost impossible. The JVM is not expressive enough. It has
|
|
never been designed as a general purpose VM anyway. A CLR backend is possible
|
|
but would require much work.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Compilation
|
|
===========
|
|
|
|
Which option to use for the fastest executable?
|
|
-----------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
For the standard configuration file, ``-d:release`` does the trick.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Which option to use for the smallest executable?
|
|
------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
For the standard configuration file, ``-d:quick --opt:size`` does the trick.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Execution of GCC fails (Windows)
|
|
--------------------------------
|
|
|
|
On Windows the configuration file ``config\nimrod.cfg`` assumes that GCC is in
|
|
``$nimrod\dist\mingw\bin``: This is where the Windows installer puts GCC.
|
|
If you delete the line ``gcc.path = r"$nimrod\dist\mingw\bin"``, Nimrod uses
|
|
the GCC from your ``PATH`` environment variable.
|
|
|
|
If you cannot modify ``$nimrod\config\nimrod.cfg``, copy
|
|
``$nimrod\config\nimrod.cfg`` to ``%APPDATA%\nimrod.cfg`` and modify
|
|
``%APPDATA%\nimrod.cfg`` instead. To determine what ``%APPDATA%`` means for
|
|
your Windows account, use the shell command::
|
|
|
|
echo %APPDATA%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
How do I use a different C compiler than the default one?
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Edit the ``config/nimrod.cfg`` file.
|
|
Change the value of the ``cc`` variable to one of the following:
|
|
|
|
============== ============================================
|
|
Abbreviation C/C++ Compiler
|
|
============== ============================================
|
|
``dmc`` Digital Mars C++
|
|
``wcc`` Watcom C++ (now unsupported!)
|
|
``bcc`` Borland C++ (now unsupported!)
|
|
``vcc`` Microsoft's Visual C++
|
|
``gcc`` Gnu C
|
|
``pcc`` Pelles C (now unsupported!)
|
|
``lcc`` Lcc-win32 (now unsupported!)
|
|
``tcc`` Tiny C
|
|
``llvm_gcc`` LLVM-GCC compiler
|
|
``icc`` Intel C++ compiler
|
|
``ucc`` Generic UNIX C compiler
|
|
============== ============================================
|
|
|
|
If your C compiler is not in the above list, try using the
|
|
*generic UNIX C compiler* (``ucc``). If the C compiler needs
|
|
different command line arguments try the ``--passc`` and ``--passl`` switches.
|
|
Unsupported compilers contain serious bugs that keep them from bootstrapping
|
|
Nimrod.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|