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| author | JF Bastien <jfb@chromium.org> | 2015-06-08 17:46:01 +0200 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | JF Bastien <jfb@chromium.org> | 2015-06-08 17:46:01 +0200 |
| commit | 8ab1c1eaaf25e0688d893a70708aba31188f76d1 (patch) | |
| tree | 0a3d24b1d065529f430de89f2854899a421b327a /TextFormat.md | |
| parent | 9329862be20ddb6da38e28519871910c2680af1d (diff) | |
| download | nanowasm-design-8ab1c1eaaf25e0688d893a70708aba31188f76d1.tar.gz | |
Split out text format into its own document.
Diffstat (limited to 'TextFormat.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | TextFormat.md | 22 |
1 files changed, 22 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/TextFormat.md b/TextFormat.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ce2bb4 --- /dev/null +++ b/TextFormat.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +# Text Format + +The purpose of this text format is to support: +* View Source on a WebAssembly module, thus fitting into the Web (where every + source can be viewed) in a natural way. +* Presentation in browser development tools when source maps aren't present + (which is necessarily the case with the MVP). +* Writing WebAssembly code directly for reasons including pedagogical, + experimental, debugging, optimization, and testing of the spec itself. +* The text format is equivalent and isomorphic to the + [binary format](BinaryEncoding.md). +* The text format will be standardized, but only for tooling purposes: + * Compilers will support this format for `.S` and inline assembly. + * Debuggers and profilers will present binary code using this textual format. + * Browsers will not parse the textual format on regular web content in order + to implement WebAssembly semantics. +* Given that the code representation is actually an + [Abstract Syntax Tree](ASTSemantics.md), the syntax would contain nested + statements and expressions (instead of the linear list of instructions most + assembly languages have). +* There is no requirement to use JavaScript syntax; this format is not intended + to be evaluated or translated directly into JavaScript. |
