VecC compiler

An experimental compiler for a vector programming languge. Inspired by ISPC and shader programming.

Warning

This is NOT a finished programming language. Do not use for serious projects.

https://pharr.org/matt/blog/2018/04/30/ispc-all

https://pharr.org/matt/blog/2018/04/21/ispc-volta-c-and-spmd

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/academic/class/15869-f11/www/lectures/07_gpucore.pdf

Features

• procedural
• strong static type checking
  • type hint system for inferring literal types
• constant folding
• array programming combined with SIMD and AoSoA
• type vectorization
• C codegen backend
• optional semicolons

Samples

One of the samples is a simple software-rendered game I released on itch.io

Note

Most samples currently work only on windows

To see the samples in action, first:

cd samples

then:

build <sample_name>

or

run <sample_name>

Samples include:

• hello_world
• game
• julia_set
• audio
• text

TODO

• SIMD bytecode?
  • exec mask vs active lane unordered array
• first parameter overloading and self call expressions
• combined vs underlying (native) vector types
• calling scalar procedures with vector parameters
• more vector "intrinsics" as language features, e.g. ISPC's foreach_active
• generate multiple versions of procedures based on the parameter vectorization
• polish auto-coversions between array/vector/scalar programming

Credits

Many parts of this compiler are inspired by Blaise and the Odin compiler.