## Notation and Conventions

Specification vs. Implementation: This document is meant as a functional specification for the T3 VM, but also contains numerous details of the reference implementation. The inclusion of these implementation details is not meant to imply that every implementation must use the same internal architecture, but is meant to clarify the specification.

Image File, Load Image, Program Image: These terms refer to a file that contains a program that the VM can load and run. (Despite the terminology, no pictures or graphics are involved. We call the file an "image" because it contains a snapshot of memory for the initial state of the program; the file contains other information as well, so it's not truly a loadable image in the sense that it could be copied byte-for-byte into memory for execution.)

User Code, Byte Code: These terms are used to refer to code written in the VM instruction set and loaded from a program image file. The actual source code to this byte code may be prepared in any language for which a compiler that targets the T3 VM exists.

C Code, Native Code: These terms are used to refer to the fully-compiled code that comprises the interpreter. These terms are used interchangeably, and may actually refer to code written in C, C++, assembler, or sometimes even another language; however, whatever the source language, such code is compiled to machine ("native") code on each platform where the interpreter runs, and hence the original source language is essentially irrelevant.

Host Application Environment: The T3 VM is not a stand-alone system; instead, it is meant to be embedded in an application. Because of this, the VM does not provide a complete operating environment; for example, it does not provide any built-in mechanisms for performing input/output or interacting with a user. What the VM does specify is a set of interfaces that the containing application provides; the VM provides the user code with access to the operating environment through these interfaces.

Objects and TADS Objects: The T3 VM has two types of "objects": a generic internal object type, which is the basic unit of memory management in the VM; and the "TADS object," which is a particular class of the generic internal object which implements inheritance and a property/value mechanism. We refer to instances of this subclass as "TADS objects" because this subclass directly implements the functionality exposed through the object and class construct in the TADS language.

Copyright © 2001, 2006 by Michael J. Roberts.
Revision: September, 2006

TADS 3 Technical Manual
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