New member

Azrael has joined the team!

Progress?

I've finally decided for a total rewrite.

Current status

It's been ages since I last posted here... It's 02:00, and I'm too tired to write a long post, but I just wanted to tell what's going on, why I haven't worked on Topaz, and a bit about the future.

The now

Development has halted completely. Last commit was nearly two months ago. Why? I've lost all motivation to work on it. The current code was only meant as prototype to see how it could work. Over time I added more features, and now (read: when i stopped working on it) it's grown unmaintainable. I should start over, but I don't feel like scrapping all the work.

The future

So do I abandon Topaz?

No, but if I can't get someone else to help me I don't think it will be finished in a while.

This post feels unfinished, but it's now 02:20, and I'm too tired to continue. I might update this tomorrow.

Progress report #2 (or 3? 4?)

Not much have happened since the last post. I got no comments, and while some people have joined #topaz, no-one have actually said something. The reason for the standstill is that I'm not sure of the best way to "bundle" instances to functions (currently it's grabbing the function from the top of the stack and the instance from the second-to-top spot. This means that you run arbitrary functions).

Here is an incomplete todo list:

• Method calls
• Access specification (public, protected, private)
• Exceptions
• Instantiation
• Inheritance
• A way to store and transfer data

Progress report

School started this week, so I haven't had much time to work on Topaz. The current HEAD revision is broken (or is it just the examples that aren't updated?), so if you want a working version revert to revision 9.

I would really like some feedback on how you want Topaz to be, so please leave a comment or join #topaz.

It's working, it's working!

I brought the VM back to a working state tonight, and it does now support jumps, both conditional and non-conditional, with the opcodes JMP, JMPIF (pop the top of the stack, if it's true, jump), and JMPEL (else, jump if the top value is false). In addition, I've fixed static calls, and with some changes to the assembler, the example code works.

I've also started to take a look at Tamarin (WP), which is the VM that powers AS 3, and will eventually be used in Mozilla. ActionScript is very similar to what I plan Topaz to be, so I can look at it to get ideas on how to do stuff. The source file layout is very confusing tought, so the only useful thing I've found yet is the list of the OpCodes.

PS: Join me at irc://irc.gamesurge.net/#topaz

Assembla Space (SVN)

I have now created an Assembla space, which provides SVN hosting. Keep in mind that the code is far from finished.