I think it’s been discussed before but cannot find any lasting reference to this, so here goes. What are the technical limitations to having programs that mix bytecode and native (OCaml) code? Say, a toplevel that can load/link .cmxs files but retain the ability to evaluate new toplevel phrases in …

[image] c-cube: My naive understanding is that memory representation is the same for native and bytecode, so that should boil down to incompatible call conventions? I would say so. In Coq, we are mixing both, and the intricate part is indeed calling convention. When calling native code from b…

[image] silene: I would say so. In Coq, we are mixing both, and the intricate part is indeed calling convention. When calling native code from bytecode, the bytecode first calls a C function which in turns call caml_callback . How do you handle calls to bytecode functions from the native side…

And to be complete, I should mention that the execution goes from native code to bytecode to native code (and back), but no further. The inner native code does not call any bytecode. In other words, the bytecode interpreter is not reentrant, as far as we are concerned.

Mixing bytecode and native

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silene January 18, 2022, 5:01pm 4

There are no calls to bytecode functions, only calls to the bytecode interpreter, which is a C function. So, one direction or the other, calls go through C code, which requires a bit of discipline.

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Mixing bytecode and native

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