Red's compilation model
From the previous screenshot of a red -r release-mode compilation, we see that this takes two steps:
- The first step doesn't state it explicitly, but it compiles the Red source code to Red/System code.
- The second one compiles Red/System to native code:
As mentioned, compilation is done with the REBOL red.r script. Due to this, Red is currently 32-bit only, self-hosting will make 64-bit binaries possible.
Note
If you are feeling adventurous, you can experiment with compiling Red from within the REBOL console. Visit: https://github.com/red/red#running-red-from-the-sources-for-contributors
At this moment, there are two distinct modes of executing a Red program:
- Running with the interpreter, which takes place in memory and involves some amount of compilation
- Compiling to native code in a binary file and then running this executable, with Red/System as an intermediate step
The definitive compiler architecture will be more complicated than in other languages and could be called...
