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Add a WebAssembly back end

    • Closed Issue created by Norman Ramsey @nrnrnr

    A WebAssembly back end has been discussed and attempted before (#14976 (closed), closed; https://github.com/tweag/asterius, incompatible with GHC's run-time system; https://webghc.github.io/, dormant), but one has never been truly incorporated into GHC. We propose to do it by adapting GHC's native code generator and GHC's run-time system.

    The attempt we know best is Asterius, but Asterius currently relies on GHC's 8.10 branch, and instead of GHC's run-time system, it uses a custom run-time system hand-written in JavaScript.

    Things to do, to be refined as progress is made:

    • WebAssembly native code generator

      • Add wrapper for doing dominator analysis on CmmGraph (related to #20726)
      • Add key graph-algorithm logic from FGL (#21259)
      • Add "node splitter" to convert irreducible control-flow graphs
      • Add representaiton of WebAssembly control flow
      • Add translation from CmmGraph to WebAssembly control flow
      • Add representation of WebAssembly straight-line code
      • Add representation of WebAssembly relocatable object/asm files
      • Add codeOutput function to emit WebAssembly from CmmGraph
      • Add post-HSC pipeline to support assembly and linking
      • Add WebAssembly back end to compiler driver

    • WebAssembly runtime independent of JavaScript:

      • Update build system to add a new platform (Wasi/Wasm32) to the existing POSIX and Win32 platforms
      • Build RTS and all boot libs for Wasi/Wasm32 without POSIX dependencies

    • JavaScript interoperation:

      • Refactor RTS schedule function to simplify future updates (#20968)
      • Add support for GHC/RTS inside JavaScript event loop, as per operational semantics
      • Reach agreement with GHCJS on support for JavaScript FFI
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