MicroPerl

A subset Perl compiler targeting the Z80 processor. Compiles Perl-like source code to bytecode, then generates a native Z80 ROM image with an embedded bytecode interpreter.

Features

• Scalar variables - my $x = 42;
• Strings - my $s = "hello";
• Arithmetic - +, -, *, /, %, ++, --
• Comparisons - ==, !=, <, >, <=, >=, eq, ne, lt, gt
• Logical operators - &&, ||, !
• Control flow - if/elsif/else, while, for
• Subroutines - sub name($arg) { ... }
• Pattern matching - $s =~ /pattern/, $s !~ /pattern/ with . wildcard
• I/O - print

Building

cargo build --release

The compiler binary will be at target/release/microperl.

Usage

Generate a Z80 ROM image:

./target/release/microperl program.pl --rom output.rom

Debug options:

# Show tokenized output
./target/release/microperl program.pl --tokens

# Show parsed AST
./target/release/microperl program.pl --ast

# Show compiled bytecode
./target/release/microperl program.pl --bytecode

Example

# FizzBuzz in MicroPerl

my $i = 1;

while ($i <= 30) {
    if ($i % 15 == 0) {
        print "FizzBuzz\n";
    } elsif ($i % 3 == 0) {
        print "Fizz\n";
    } elsif ($i % 5 == 0) {
        print "Buzz\n";
    } else {
        print $i, "\n";
    }
    $i++;
}

Architecture

Source (.pl) -> Lexer -> Parser -> Compiler -> Bytecode -> Z80 Code Generator -> ROM

The generated ROM contains:

• Native Z80 runtime (~4KB) with bytecode interpreter
• Compiled bytecode appended at 0x1000
• String table

Testing

cargo test

License

BSD 3-Clause License. See LICENSE.