World: r4wp

(.lib and .a reader coded in R2)

So, next steps (next week), add PIC support to backends and implement 
shared lib support in Mach-o and ELF emitters.

that's not a microcontroller, right? :-)

OK, position independent code, got it via Wikipedia ...

No, it's Position Independent Code: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Position-independent_code

PIC is mandatory in UNIX shared libs.

so so far only Windows DLLs are supported, right?

Right.

But that enables already to build a lot of things, like bridges with 
other languages or VMs.

yes, generally we are now able to write low level binding using rebol 
like syntax, generate libraries for environments like Delphi, etc., 
which e.g. my friend still uses :-)

My personal favorite is Blender, I'd very much like to add Red/System 
support to it (and kick out Python later when Red will be there). 
;-)

But bridging with Android and iOS is high priority, so Blender will 
wait.

BTW, best option for bridging with Java can be discussed here (on 
the ML). I'm not sure anymore that the JNI way is the best one...

What I still think is, that we need strong parse. It is very cool 
technology. Yes, I dare to call it a technology. We need r3 level 
parse. Then we can create dialects, and show other guys, that dialecting 
is a cool concept. Pity we were not able to capitalise on it more, 
mainly due to closed nature of R2 possibilities to bind to other 
environments .... you imo :-)

*(or on the ML)

you = just

some kind of brige is required, if we want to get into an Android 
API. Ditto for .NET?

Yes

Same issue.

I have added a sample program for those who want to play with DLL 
generation:


https://github.com/dockimbel/Red/blob/dyn-lib-emitter/red-system/tests/shared-lib.reds

I've looked at the Blender interface, but it's rather big and complex

Petr, I think we need Topaz level PARSE :-)

you used -dlib option, does it replace -t one? Not skilled here, 
but - can I generate e.g. ARM executable/library from Windows Red/System? 
Or is target environment needed?

Topaz has even better parse than R3?

I don't know if it's complete, but it goes beyond REBOL

Doc, this page can be updated because of the support of DLL generation. 
http://www.red-lang.org/p/roadmap.html

Also, 4.8 in the documentation:

As c-string! and struct! are already implicit pointers, the only 
pointed datatypes allowed are integer! and byte! (logic! pointer 
is not needed).

Outdated since float support

4.8.2:

Pointer declaration is only required for local pointer variables 
in functions' specification block. In such case, the datatype declaration 
can be omitted and left to the inferencer to guess.

This seems to contradict itself

Blender: yes, API is huge and it's a lot of work, but I'm convinced 
that Red, with appropriate dialects, would do wonders there and it 
could be a great way to make Red known.

-dlib option: it's just set the flag to produce shared library instead 
of executable.


-t option: sets a target which is just a handy way to group several 
options together (most options don't have a specific command-line 
switch).

can I generate e.g. ARM executable/library from Windows Red/System?


You can cross-compile ARM/ELF code from Windows or MacOSX, just use 
the appropriate target (https://github.com/dockimbel/Red). Currently 
there's only two ARM targets: Linux-ARM and Android. You can cross-compile 
to these targets from any platform Red/System compiler works on.

When Windows for ARM will be out, I guess we'll need a few modifications 
to PE emitter to support it. Does anyone know if Windows8/ARM beta 
versions are available somewhere?

Jerry: roadmap updated.

Re 4.8 in docs: I agree it's messy...improving that right now.

Done.

I know I'm late to the game, but temp.dll works here (win7 x64). 
If needed, I can pull up an XP x64 box to test.

Gregg: thanks for taking the time to test it. I think it won't be 
needed for XP x64 as we know it works on XP 32-bit and W7 x64 already.

Doc, I can confirm that the DLL works now. Thanks!

Well that was too soon. If I compile your example (%shared-lib.reds), 
I cannot load it into R2 (R2 crashes). If I comment all the on-* 
actors, I can load the lib, but I cannot access any values from the 
lib (foo, bar, i has no value).

Rebolek: I can reproduce the crash, looking into it....

(I'm pretty sure it was working last time I've tested shared-lib.reds 
script)

And are you able to use the exported values (foo, bar, i)?

Ah, nevermind, I had an error in my test script, exported values 
work.

It seems there are some remaining bugs in on-* callbacks, probably 
registers saving issue...still investigating...

So I've got this working:

>> foo: make-native [a [integer!] return: [integer!]][a + 1]
>> equal? 124 foo 123
== true


Still needs some work before publishing, but it shouldn't take long.

Great! :-)

I'll push a fix for the on-* issue in a couple of minutes.