[libre-riscv-dev] nmigen frustrations make me want Rust

[Jacob Lifshay]

One additional option is to add nmigen interop support to the Rust HDL.
Rust has a rather non-verbose binding to python: https://pyo3.rs/

On Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 07:18 Jacob Lifshay <programmerjake at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Mar 17, 2019, 07:14 Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl at lkcl.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Example of the polymorphic benefits of python which I plan to exploit is
>> in
>> the pipeline Stage API. Use m.d.comb += self.idata.eq(self.idata) and if
>> odata is an object or a signal it does not matter.
>>
>> The API requirement becomes that if it is an object then the eq function
>> must return a *list* of eq assignments of all of the signals within that
>> class instance that will get the assignment of the idata object signals
>> into odata.
>>
>> Strong typing actually massively interferes with this type of flexibility
>> as it is unexpected and unanticipated legitimate *and desirable* behavior
>> that not even the authors of nmigen could have predicted, and strong
>> typing
>> would prevent and prohibit unless explicitly envisaged, way, way in
>> advance, which is almost impossible and impractical.
>>
> I think Rust can let you do that.
>
>>
>> This type of powerful shoot-yourself-in-the-foot capability of python is
>> just something that you need to put strict software engineering practices
>> in place and adhere to them no matter what.
>>
>> 15 years ago I genuinely used to think that unit tests were a total waste
>> of effort. Then for pyjamas (the python to javascript language translator)
>> we accumulated well over 20,000 of them and it was the only way that we
>> could safely make forward progress.
>>
>> As a team we managed some really quite significant fundamental redesigns,
>> outputting completely different code, even with different performance
>> characteristics.
>>
>> L.
>>
>>
>> --
>> ---
>> crowd-funded eco-conscious hardware: https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68
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>