Racket Assembler

Installation

Probably the easiest method is to create a local link using raco pkg install in the top level of this repository. This will create links so that require and friends work properly.

See the example directory for how to create executable procedures.

NOTE dynamic loading doesn't yet work on Racket CS (which is the default from version 8.0). This will be addressed at some point.

See example/hello.rkt for how to use this assembler to create an actual executable.

Overview

This is an assembler for Racket. The idea is to support both specific processor instruction sets (x86-64 to begin with) and a generic target in the style of GNU Lightning.

I used some ideas from Noel Welsh's x86 assembler.

My immediate goal is to implement enough to write a translator from Racket bytecode to machine code, as an alternative module loader. (The long-term "pie in the sky" vision is a self-hosted Racket system).

Status

Some, but not all, x86-64 instructions are implemented.

Some, but not all, of the generic instruction set is implemented.

The instructions are buggy and are likely to crash your Racket process.

The examples (adapted from the GNU Lightning examples) run, but are not perfect.

The generic instruction support needs some tweaking to be more Racket-friendly and emit fewer useless instructions.