creole/README.md

Creole is a bytecode designed for simple implementations.

Bytecode Format

Each creole line consists of pseudo-UTF-8 characters. The first byte is an unsigned number between 0 and 127 (the high bit is clear). Each suceeding pseudo-UTF-8 character is encoded as follows:

• 110xxxxx 10xxxxxx
• 1110xxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx
• 11110xxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx
• 111110xx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx
• 1111110x 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx
• 11111110 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx 10xxxxxx

The first four bytes determine the type:

• 0: Value is a register.
• 1: Value is immediate.

All other values are reserved. Overlong values are allowed, and for some argument values they are necessary. All lines are terminated by a byte of all zeros.