this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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Implementing your own interpreter as a WASM library (alien.top)
submitted 1 year ago by Frere_de_la_Quote@alien.top to c/lisp
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When you implement your own programming language, one of the problems is to implement a GUI to play with it. If you compile with WASM, you can solve this issue and a as a bonus you will be able to demonstrate your language across the Internet quite easily.

However, there are some real issues. One is that Web Assembly handle strings as arrays of integers.

If you are interested, I compiled my own language: LispE as a WASM library.

I have written a few blogs about how to do it: https://github.com/naver/lispe/wiki/6.18-Handling-strings-in-WASM-without-burning-yourself

Here is also a guide on how to use this library: https://github.com/naver/lispe/wiki/6.17-A-WebAssembly-version-of-LispE

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[–] CodeFarmer@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Web Assembly handle strings as arrays of integers

I'm afraid I may have some startling news.

[–] Frere_de_la_Quote@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm really interested if you have some news about this very topic. Seriously!!! Handling strings was really a hassle in WASM and if there is now a better solution I'm really excited to this prospect.

Do yo have any pointers?

[–] CodeFarmer@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorry, my news was slightly tongue in cheek. Any assembly-like solution ultimately treats strings that way.

[–] ralfD-@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well, probably more like sequences of bytes.

[–] Frere_de_la_Quote@alien.top 1 points 1 year ago

Not exactly. Javascript strings are encoded as UTF-16 characters. Each element in this array of integers is a UTF-16 code point... So basically most characters are encoded on int16_t, except for very large codes, such as emojis, which are usually implemented on two int16_t.