Files
AILang/design/contracts/embedding-abi.md
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Brummel 19dc42f5ca design/ ledger: dense cross-linking via three topical splits + 88-link sweep
The first formal-links milestone shipped clause-5 + 8 links across the
existing file layout. Browsing surfaced that file-only granularity is
only as precise as the file boundaries — three files mixed two or
three navigation targets under one address, so the 8 links could not
multiply without ambiguity. This commit fixes the substrate, then
applies the sweep the original milestone deferred.

Splits (each extracts an already-self-contained section into its own
file so links land on the topic, not the parent doc's TOC):

  contracts/typeclasses.md
    → +contracts/prelude-classes.md  (Eq/Ord/Show ships, polymorphic `print`)
    → +contracts/method-dispatch.md  (5-step dispatch rule, candidate index)

  contracts/memory-model.md
    → +contracts/language-constraints.md  (the 4 binding constraints
                                           making RC sound without a
                                           cycle collector)

  models/authoring-surface.md
    → +models/prose-projection.md  (Form-B / `ail prose` / merge-prose)

Each new file enters design/INDEX.md as its own row (three contracts
share show_no_instance_e2e.rs / uniqueness.rs as ratifying tests;
prose-projection is a model). Two pre-existing links rebind to the
new topic-files (memory-model.md → method-dispatch.md;
float-semantics.md → prelude-classes.md).

Link sweep: 8 → 88 formal Markdown links over 23 files. Every file
in design/contracts/ + design/models/ now has at least one outgoing
link; the tree is fully connected. Links are file-relative
`[label](path)` per the established convention, fenced code blocks
are skipped (a `](` inside ```jsonc``` is literal text), the durable
tier (design/ + crates/ + runtime/) is enforced by clause-5.

Tests:
  - design_index_pin.rs (5/5 clauses): clean-cut, INDEX resolution,
    ratifying-test resolution, no decision-record prose in contracts/,
    body links durable + resolving.
  - docs_honesty_pin.rs (5/5): one assertion rebinds from typeclasses.md
    to prelude-classes.md (where the gated sentence now lives);
    design_corpus widens to include the 4 new files so the Wunschdenken
    / doc-archaeology sweeps continue to cover everything that used to
    live in the parents.

No spec/plan/journal for this batch — interactive collaboration after
the milestone closed; the user gated the splits explicitly before the
sweep.
2026-05-20 00:24:08 +02:00

73 lines
3.3 KiB
Markdown

# Embedding ABI
## Embedding ABI
`ail build --emit=staticlib` compiles a module to a relocatable
`lib<entry>.a` (program objects only) plus a separate
`libailang_rt.a` (the RC runtime: `rc.c` + `str.c`), with **no**
`@main` trampoline and **no** `MissingEntryMain` requirement — a
kernel module is a library.
Each `fn` carrying `(export "<sym>")` (schema: `FnDef.export`) is
emitted as an externally-visible C entrypoint `@<sym>` forwarding to
the internal `@ail_<module>_<fn>`. The symbol is author-chosen and
decoupled from the `ail_<module>_<def>` mangling so a module/fn
rename does not move the C symbol.
The set that can cross the boundary is exactly: `Int` (lowered
`i64`), `Float` (lowered `double`), or a single-constructor record
whose every field is one of those (crossing as a bare `ptr` to the
box layout below); the fn's effect set must be empty. There is no
general value-marshalling layer — the host hand-constructs and
hand-reads that box layout directly, so the enumerated set *is* the
whole contract, narrow by construction, not a subset of a wider
embedding ABI. Because the box layout is the host's contract
surface with no accessor indirection, it is a **one-way commitment
frozen as of M3**: a compiler change MUST NOT move the box offsets
below for an exported type, nor invert the host-free rule.
These are enforced at `ail check` (`export-non-scalar-signature`,
`export-has-effects`) — an effectful or non-scalar export *fails to
typecheck*. Every exported entrypoint takes a mandatory leading `ailang_ctx_t*`
(M2): a per-thread embedding context created by `ailang_ctx_new()`
and released by `ailang_ctx_free()`, owned by the calling thread for
its lifetime. The host links one `ailang_ctx_t` per OS worker thread
and the runtime accounts RC alloc/free into it: the per-allocation
hot path (the per-ctx counters and the per-object refcount header)
is non-atomic by design and never shared — a box never crosses a
thread (`Ctx: !Send`) and each `ailang_ctx_t` is
single-thread-per-ctx. The one datum a multi-threaded host shares
is the global RC-stats fallback counter (used when no ctx is
bound); it is atomic-relaxed so the swarm's leak accounting is
exact. The swarm artefact is data-race-free, sanitiser-verified.
The staticlib swarm artefact is **RC-only**:
`ail build --emit=staticlib` rejects `--alloc=gc`/`--alloc=bump`
(the shared Boehm collector is not swarm-safe). The value/record
layout is **frozen as of M3** (see [Frozen value layout](frozen-value-layout.md)); the
ctx-threaded C signature is the M2 shape.
Export parameters are written **bare**: a scalar type carries no
`own`/`borrow` mode (a single-constructor record export parameter,
by contrast, carries `own`/`borrow` — see [memory model](memory-model.md)
for the full ownership contract; the
frozen value layout below specifies how that contract lands at the C ABI). The
canonical M1 export shape:
```
(fn step
(export "backtest_step")
(type
(fn-type
(params (con Int) (con Int))
(ret (con Int))))
(params state sample)
(body
(app + state (app * sample sample))))
```
`ail emit-ir <module> --emit=staticlib` prints this kernel's LLVM
IR (the external `@<sym>` forwarders, no `@main`) instead of the
executable-path `main`-required rejection — the Decision-5
IR-readability affordance for a `main`-free kernel.
Ratified by: `crates/ailang-codegen/tests/embed_record_layout_pin.rs`.