Welcome to New SWIFT: Library Evolution and LSP Support

Transcript

1. Welcome to New SWIFT Library Evolution and LSP Support G

   Abhisek
 


2. What are we going to discuss • ABI Stability •

   Module Stability • Library Evolution Support • LSP Support
3. None

4. How does a SWIFT file compile Swift Source Code Assembly

   Language AST SIL IR Parse Sema Clang Importer SIL Generation Optimisations and Analysis IR Gen

5. What does an Assembly Language contain • Opcodes • Data

   layout • Type metadata • Functions respect calling conventions

6. SWIFT source code Standard Library Core SWIFT Runtime SDK Overlays

   SWIFT Standard Library

7. What was happening earlier to SWIFT 5.0 App executable 


   SWIFT standard library App Size

8. Why was this happening?

9. Application Binary Interface(ABI) • An interface that defines rules that

   compilers and linkers adhere to in order to compile your program and execute properly • Interface for app to use external library at OS at binary level • Specifies the calling conventions that the libraries should respect to • Specifies the in memory layout of data types, classes, structs, etc Binary 1 Binary 2

10. When a language becomes ABI stable • The function interfaces

    shall not change i.e the order of arguments, return types, etc • Interface for a library should be forward compatible for future versions of the compiler • Stable definition of data type and data structures • Data structures should have a definite data layout • Application built with a specific swift version will be compatible with different Swift versions 5.0 6.x 5.0

11. Swift ABI components • Types(structs and classes) must have a

    defined in-memory layout for instances • Type metadata must either have a defined memory layout, or have a set of defined APIs for querying the metadata of a type • Exported libraries need to have unique names which binaries should agree and this achieved via name mangling. • Calling conventions should be respected by every exposed functions of external libraries • Runtime API should be stable • Swift standard library should expose stable APIs

12. Data Layout of Types • Specifies layout of objects of

    given type • Size, Offset and Alignment of an object in memory • Static and Opaque Layout • Eg - Non final Class Instances(Opaque) and Struct layout(Static) in memory

13. Type Metadata • Contains information about the data itself •

    ABI is how to access this information • To stabilise metadata need to provide metadata read/write functions alongside the runtime to interact with the metadata • Eg. Function Metadata, Class Metadata(V tables)

14. Name Mangling • Used to produce unique names of functions,

    properties, types, etc • ABI stability means a stable mangling scheme • Introduction of Compact Manglings

15. Calling Convention • Implementation of how subroutines receive parameters from

    their caller • Says how are parameters, return values and return addresses placed on register • Order of argument passing • What metadata of arguments represents

16. Module Stability • Deals with linking libraries at compile time

    • Swift module file - Binary equivalent of C or Obj C header file • Swift module is tied to current compiler version • Interface for a Swift 5 framework will work with >Swift 5 compiler • Includes API declaration and inlinable code • Swift Interface - Generated by Xcode if - enable-library-evolution flag is enabled 7.x 6.x 6.x

17. Library Evolution Support • Shipping a new library without having

    to recompile its clients • Giving library authors the flexibility to add to their public interface and to change the implementation details • Eg of language features enabling these - @frozen enums and structs 6.x 7.x

18. Language Server Protocol(LSP) What problem LSP aims to resolve •

    Editors supported compatibility for fewer languages • Integration code of specific languages are written down in IDEs • Implementation are different across different languages and IDEs • Performance of language varies from one IDE to another

19. Language Server Protocol(LSP) How LSP would help? • No need

    to implement support for each language • Provides common set of functionality for supported languages • Provides language specific smarts inside a server that can communicate with development tool • Provide support for feature such as autocompletion, go-to definition, etc

20. Language Server Protocol(LSP) How LSP works?

21. How are these gonna help • Make language changes more

    stable • Make build times faster with the help of module stability • Swift can readily be used for cross platform development • With LSP, Swift can be written on different IDEs

22. References • https://github.com/apple/swift/blob/master/docs/ABIStabilityManifesto.md • https://github.com/apple/swift/blob/master/docs/CallingConvention.rst#high- level-semantic-conventions • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calling_convention • https://nshipster.com/language-server-protocol/

    • https://swift.org/blog/abi-stability-and-more/ • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5-WaD8VV38 • https://blog.gopheracademy.com/advent-2018/llvm-ir-and-go/ • https://forums.swift.org/t/plan-for-module-stability/14551/5

23. Thanks