VM Development Expert FAQs

Question 1

How do I add a new instruction to my VM using this skill?

Accepted Answer

The skill provides a four-step workflow: define the opcode in BytecodeDefinition, implement the Instruction class, register it in the InstructionFactory, and run targeted Maven tests.

Question 2

Can I use this for production language development?

Accepted Answer

While based on an educational reference (Cymbol/Antlr4), the patterns for instruction encoding, stack management, and GC are applicable to production-grade custom runtimes.

Question 3

Does it include memory management and GC support?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it provides implementation patterns for heap memory management and a Mark-Sweep garbage collection algorithm, including object marking and sweeping phases.

Question 4

What kind of virtual machines can this skill help me build?

Accepted Answer

This skill supports the development of both stack-based VMs (using an operand stack) and register-based VMs (using ABI-aligned registers), specifically modeled after the Cymbol language architecture.

Question 5

What are the prerequisites for using the vm-dev skill?

Accepted Answer

It is designed to work alongside the 'ep-navigator' (for project scope) and 'compiler-dev' (for IR to bytecode translation) skills for a complete language development experience.

VM Development Expert

Key Features

Use Cases

VM Development Expert

Key Features

Use Cases