nim-wiki/Compiler-module-reference.md

This wiki page was written quickly and may contain information which is out of date or needs to be worded better.

###Module ###Aliases.nim - Alias Analysis Used for term-rewriting macros. Buggy for this purpose because it has been rewritten with something completely different in mind. Analysis is both value and type based. Looks for areas

###Ast.nim Tree structure

###Astalgo contains helpers and debug procedures, which work on symbols, types, and node.

###babel.cmd helper for compilers babel support

###bitsets Helpers for code generator. Set representation as an array of bits

###nimsets.nim - The complement to bitsets. Set representation as an AST

###Canonicalizer Will be the future. Used to make the C code generator generate code in a much more deterministic fashion.

###ccgcalls C code generator calls. Generates a call expression in C, objective c, and C++ syntax. What needs to be done is that we often need to translate the result type into a hidden parameter.

###cggexpr
C code generation for expressions. Divide between stmts and expr mostly historical

###ccgmerge
A merger for C files which is used for the symbol files feature.

###ccgstmts Code generation for statements. See ccgexprs. NOt for for loops, b/c they are eliminated.

###ccthreadvars Thread variable emulation.

###ccgtypes complex, b/c deals with types. The PNode's are not cyclic. You can recurse them without any recursion checks. Type generation for the c backend, as well as run time type generation.

###ccgutils Misc. utilities for C generation code. Contains hash string. Has to be same as system hash string, generate hashes at compile time. Also contains getUniqueType, to be deprecated in place of the canonicalization module.

###cgen.nim Main file for the C code generation. Includes things like DLL generation, foreign function interface, dispatches to. Cgendata is the main structure.

###cgmeth.nim code generation for methods. Performs AST to AST transformations. Analysis away method look up.

###commands.nim Command line argument processing.

###condsyms conditional symbols

###crc.nim cyclic redundancy check algorithm. Used by symbol files, recom

###depends.nim Pass which computes dependancies between modules. Able to generate a dot file which can be used.

###docgen.nim Old documentation generator, which doesn't use the semantic pass. Doesn't know about symbols and identifiers.

###docgen2.nim New documenation generator

###effects.nim - ###evalffi.nim -

###evals.nim old evaluation engine, not used anymore

###exccomp external compiler, describes how the c compiler is invoked.

###filter_template hashbang filter

###filters helper for common stuff which source code filter.

###syntaxes.nim -

###guards - Growing module. Flow sensitive analysis, mainly for values. Used for not nil checking

###hlo - High level optimizer. Part of the term-rewriting macro engine.

###idents.nim - PIdents. Hash identifiers into a single global hash table

###idgen - ID generator. Used to create persistant IDs for the symbol files mechanism

###imports.nim - The module which has the helpers which deal with the module import mechanism.

###jsgen - Javascript code generator

###lambdalifting - Pass which changes closures into pairs of function pointers and environments

###lexer - the lexer

###lists - Linked list implementation

###llstream - low level stream which contains some features which the compiler needs.

###lookups.nim - helpers for symbol lookup. Quite involved due to templates, overloading, etc.

###lowerings - Quite new module which implements common AST to AST helpers.

###magicsyms - compilerproc symbol is used by code generator whic inse

###modules.nim - Module handling

###message.nim - Messages, warnings, hints.

###nimconf - configuration file handling

###nimeval - the upcoming virtual machine to evaluate code.

###nimlexbase - Old lexbase. Buffer handling fo rthe lexer.

###nimrod.nim - Main nimrod file which produces the nimrod executable.

###options - Contains commandline options and checks.

###parampatterns - Related to overloading based on AST

###parseaux - auxileries for the parser. Contains verbosity handling.

###sempass2 - additional semantic checking.

###patterns - related to term rewriting macros

###pbraces - start of braces parser

###platform.nim - contains information for cross compiling (data type information)

###pragmas.nim - Contains all the pragmas that the compiler support. Use a set approach. Contains one big procedure which parses all the possible pragmas.

###pretty.nim - Prettifier. Used for case consistancy

###procfind - used to find the header of a procedure. Used to determine if

###renderer - able to give a string representation in the AST.

###rodread - Reader of rod files, the symbol file mechanism. It also does module dependency tracking to decide whether a rod file can be used or whether the module needs to be recompiled

###rodutils - utilities for above

###ropes - Used throughout the code generator

###seterate.nim - Implements saturated arithmatic for integers.

###sem.nim - Main file for the semantic checker

###semcall - semantic checking for calls

###semdata - contains the main data structures for semantic checking.

###semdestruct - semantic checking for destructors.

###semexprs - semantic checking for expressions.

###semfold - semantic checking for constant folding. Needed in the semantic pass, since things like bounds checking etc rely on such data.

###semgnrc - pass which implements symbol lookups for generics.

###seminst - instantiation of generics

###macrosanity - generates semantic ast checking for macros

###semmagic - magics that need special treatment after overloading resolution.

###semparallel - semantic checking for the upcoming parallel statement

###sempass2 - Effect tracking

###service.nim - IDE Tool stuff

###sigmatch - very important module. Overloading resolution procedures.

###suggest.nim - helper for IDE tools

###syntaxes - dispatching for what parser or sourcecodefilter to invoke.

###transf - old transformation pass. Prepass before the code generator. Mostly deals with for loops into while loops

###trees.nim - Helper for ast (should get rid of)

###treetab - hashtable which works with trees

###types - helper for types

###typesrenderer - new. Used for the documentation generator so we get names

###vm.nim - new virtual machine for compile time evaluation