On Sunday, April 21, 2013 5:42:36 AM UTC-4, Ben Noordhuis wrote: > > On Sun, Apr 21, 2013 at 2:19 AM, Bill Pedersen > <[email protected]<javascript:>> > wrote: > > > > On Friday, April 19, 2013 3:57:01 PM UTC-4, Ben Noordhuis wrote: > >> > >> On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 7:54 PM, Jeff Chimene <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> > Hi, > >> > > >> > I'm interested in porting nodejs to IA64, specifically OpenVMS. > >> > Would nodejs owners be interested in integrating the resulting > patches > >> > (assuming the patches meet the qualifications described in the > >> > contributing > >> > guidelines). > >> > I realize this question also has to be asked of Google w/r/t/ V8, > libUV > >> > as > >> > well as other, TBD parts of the kit. > >> > > >> > Cheers, > >> > jec > >> > >> Are you backed by a company or is this a personal project? I ask > >> because your first task would be to port V8 (and get it accepted > >> upstream + maintain it) and that's a massive undertaking, something > >> that is unlikely to succeed when it's just a side project. > >> > >> V8 is essentially a JS to machine code compiler so you'd have to write > >> a backend that speaks IA64. Have a look at the code in e.g. > >> deps/v8/src/x64/ to get a taste of what that involves. > >> > >> Libuv is relatively trivial in comparison, that's probably no more > >> than a few days of work. Patches are welcome. > >> > >> Node.js itself should require only minimal changes; nearly all > >> platform-specific code lives in libuv. > >> > >> FWIW, I'm working on a port of node.js to Mozilla's SpiderMonkey > >> engine with the express goal of supporting a wider range of > >> architectures and operating systems. > >> > >> I'm primarily targeting SPARC, POWER and IA64 and the operating > >> systems that run on them; AIX, HP-UX, Linux. Maybe OpenVMS should be > >> on that list, too. I hadn't considered it until now. > >> > >> If or when the project will be released is anybody's guess, however. > >> I'm working on it in my off hours right now and those are rare. > > > > > > The VMS-Port SourceForge Project is an "Umbrella Project" intended to > > support and foster ports of Open Source Tools and Applications to > OpenVMS. > > We have fortnightly conference calls with members of the HP OpenVMS > > Engineering Team to discuss open tickets related to porting to OpenVMS > as > > well as specific on-going ports and future ports. > > > > The fact that you are interested in IA64 is intriguing to us for > multiple > > reasons. Do you have a JIT compilation engine? That would seem to be > > required. One discussion we have had it to consider an ARM interpreter > to > > to take code currently generate for ARM platforms and then determine the > > equivalent in an OpenVMS environment - Alpha or IA64. But if you have a > > basis for the JIT engine that would be interesting. > > Well, I don't have a IA64 JIT engine in the works and neither does > SpiderMonkey but what it does have is an interpreter written in pure C > that compiles on just about any platform/architecture under the sun > (including OpenVMS.) It may not be the fastest thing in the world but > it should be a good starting point. > > Another approach I briefly explored is hooking up V8 (or SpiderMonkey) > to LLVM. The problem is that V8 uses some reasonably advanced > techniques like on-stack replacement that require intimate knowledge > of the target architecture. (Like the calling conventions, stack > layout, etc.) I'm not sure how far you can get with LLVM; I fear it's > the kind of project that's 95% easy and 5% insurmountably hard. > > The other issue is that LLVM's JIT component only works on x86 and > POWER but that in itself is not a major road block IMO. Worst case, > you resort to temp shared object files. (I'm making it sound as if > it's easy; it's not but I don't believe there are _intrinsic_ reasons > it can't work.) > > If you want to take my idea and run with it, feel free. :-) > > > As mentioned by Jeff our team has a relationship with HP but are not > > specifically funded - this is a OpenVMS Community effort. > > My apologies if this is a rude question but what do you and Jeff get > out of it? OpenVMS is not gratis and presumably only large > enterprises and governments use it. (The Dutch Tax Office does, for > example - or did when I worked there.) I wouldn't have guessed that > there are people who hack on it in their personal time. > > > We look forward to developing a relationship with you and the you > Community > > on this project. > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > Bill. > > > > Bill Pedersen > > CCSS - Computer Consulting System Services, LLC > > 211 Ruth Drive > > Gaffney, SC 29341 > > Telephone: 864-490-8863 > > Mobile: 408-892-5204 > > Facsimile: 206-984-3068 > > www: www.ccsscorp.com > > Skype Name: william.a.pedersen > > LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/billpedersen >
> Well, I don't have a IA64 JIT engine in the works and neither does > SpiderMonkey but what it does have is an interpreter written in pure C > that compiles on just about any platform/architecture under the sun > (including OpenVMS.) It may not be the fastest thing in the world buy > it should be a good starting point. It would take benchmarking to compare the interpreter to a JIT on the Itanium or Alpha platform. Until that is done, no one will know which is better, and that still might depend on the skill of the interpreter writer or the JIT writer. The problems with JIT to Itanium is the scheduling of instruction bundles is more complex, and the large number of registers can make context switches very expensive. Depending on the type of program being interpreted, an interpreter may be faster than what could be generated by JIT code by someone other than a compiler writing expert. A program that mostly calls other subroutines or does string manipulations may run very fast in an interpreter. A program that mainly does math should run fastest with native code like JIT. > My apologies if this is a rude question but what do you and Jeff get > out of it? OpenVMS is not gratis and presumably only large > enterprises and governments use it. (The Dutch Tax Office does, for > example - or did when I worked there.) I wouldn't have guessed that > there are people who hack on it in their personal time. That is a good question and deserves a longer answer that should be posted for off topic for this mailing list. So Bill and I posted a response at: https://sourceforge.net/p/vms-ports/wiki/WhyOpenVMS%3F/ Regards, Bill. and -John -- -- Job Board: http://jobs.nodejs.org/ Posting guidelines: https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Mailing-List-Posting-Guidelines You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "nodejs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs?hl=en?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "nodejs" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
