To be more specific, nebula is compiled into its own bytecode which can then be execute at any item through the 'Nebula Interpreter'.
This repository contains the following main projects:
- Nebula.Compiler: Console application to link and compile one or more 'Nebula' scripts
- Nebula.Executor: Console application able to execute compiled 'Nebulaì scripts
The rest are:
- Nebula.Commons & Nebula.Shared: Contain shared dependencies for other C# and C++ projects
- Nebula.Core, Nebula.Emitter: Contain the main compiler logic to translate scripts into bytecode
- Nebula.Interop: Contain shared code for C++ and C# as a C++/CLI project. Mainly defines common constants to avoid misalignment issues.
In Nebula every file has its own namespace. If none is provided the file name is used. This means every file, or better named, 'scripts' does not need to worry about naming conflicts with other 'scripts'.
A file can define it's own namespace and reference functions and/or bundles from other namespaces.
A script must import intentionally any native function. This allows for the implementation of functions with similar names without causing compilation errors or shadowing.
A native function is expected to handle the data stack on its own. Mainly, popping the arguments and pushing the return value to it.
'Threads' can be created on the fly. With the async keyword any function can be executed without blocking the caller execution. The 'threads' are actually ran on the same thread of the interpreter and are periodically executed by applying a round-robin strategy. When a threaded function returns the return type is ignored and any return data is discarded from the stack.
'Bundles' are the 'class' equivalent of Nebula. All primitive data is copied and Bundle data is passed around by reference.
| Feature | Is implemented |
|---|---|
| Built-in standard library* | ✅ |
| Debug symbols for runtime debugging** | 🟨 |
| Single-thread async routines | ✅ |
| Threads can sleep any amount of time | ✅ |
| Binding to native functions for function calls | ✅ |
| Standard control flow keywords | ✅ |
| Floating point data | ✅ |
| Namespaces | ✅ |
* With the developement on the debugger plugin a standard library has been implemented, the virtual machine is now able to load bindings from Nebula.StandardLib.dll and other libraries through a standardized 'extern "C"' series of methods
** An initial implementation through the Debug Adapter Protocol has been commited. A VSCode extension will be released eventually.
A big thanks to Immo Landwerth, this project initially started from his youtube series as a custom language compiled to IL but quickly evolved to be something more.