Dimitry, I *believe* ext-core will match that document, but I'm not sure of the exact status. Tim Chevalier has done a lot of great work maintaining the external core stuff and I think he is actively using the extcore library, so *that* should almost certainly match GHC's output. It's great to hear that you are interested in writing an alternative backend! I think LHC is also using ext-core to build a backend, so this seems like a viable approach. All the best, Max 2009/10/13 Dimitry Golubovsky :

Max,

Thanks for the explanation. So, the extcore library is expected to match the spec in http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/6.10.4/html/ext-core/core.pdf and the core itself can be produced with -fext-core, correct? I think it might be interesting for people working on alternative backends (inlcuding myself).

On Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 4:53 PM, Max Bolingbroke wrote: [skip]

...

extcore is a library that parses "external" Core, which is an alternative format intended to be stable and hence a suitable target for consumption by non-GHC tooling. You can have GHC output external core instead of machine code / C. I don't believe this is widely used yet.

-- Dimitry Golubovsky

Anywhere on the Web

On 10/13/09, Dimitry Golubovsky wrote:

Max,

Thanks for the explanation. So, the extcore library is expected to match the spec in http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/6.10.4/html/ext-core/core.pdf and the core itself can be produced with -fext-core, correct? I think it might be interesting for people working on alternative backends (inlcuding myself).

Hi Dimitry, Sorry for the late reply, but the External Core produced by any version of GHC newer than 6.10.4 should match the document you cite, and if it doesn't, I'd like to know about; in that event, please file a bug report or post to the glasgow-haskell-users list with me CCed. Cheers, Tim -- Tim Chevalier * http://cs.pdx.edu/~tjc * Often in error, never in doubt "The higher you climb, the more you show your ass." -- Alexander Pope