ScriptEngines

Script Engines

Note: This page represents an implementation goal. Much of this already works, but some parts are not
      implemented yet.

OpenSim supports scripting via script engines.

Script engines are normal region modules, but creating one as a shared module has not yet been tried.

Changes

Multiple script engines can now be active at once. The script_engine directive in OpenSim.ini is no longer used!
Instead, in the [Startup] section, you will now find

DefaultScriptEngine = "DotNetEngine"

DotNetEngine is the default, to change it to XEngine, change the comments to activate the line

DefaultScriptEngine = "XEngine"

Each engine can also be disabled by inserting

Enabled = false

into it's config section. These default to true for both engines.

From this version on, OpenSim is able to run multiple script engines simultaneously.
The default is the DotNetEngine.

If these new options are absent, DotNetEngine will operate.

A script engine defines a way to load and run a script. It uses compilers and runtimes to accomplish this.

Compilers take script text and convert it to a .NET assembly. Such an assembly needs to reference a runtime, which provides API stubs.

This calls out of the appdomain to the API implementation.

Currently, a compiler exists for lsl, c#, j# and vb. YieldProlog (yp) can be added to c# scripts.

A runtime exists for the LSL API and for the OSSL API. LSL_Status/Functions

The runtime and compiler are not dependent on each other, and also not dependent on the script engine.

The following describes the directory structure:

ScriptEngines/DotNetEngine/                      The engine itself. Methods to manage threads, AppDomains, etc
ScriptEngines/XEngine/                           The engine itself. Methods to manage threads, AppDomains, etc
ScriptEngines/Interfaces/                        Common interfaces used to create script engines and components
ScriptEngines/Shared/CodeTools/                  The currrent compiler
ScriptEngines/Shared/Api/Interface/              The Api interfaces (see below)
ScriptEngines/Shared/Api/Implementation/         The Api implementations (see below)
ScriptEngines/Shared/Api/Runtime/                The Api runtimes (see below)
ScriptEngines/Shared/Api/Runtime/YieldProlog/    The Yield Prolog runtime

An API is defined as an implementation, and interface and a runtime. The reason for this seemingly conplicated approach has to do with scripts running in AppDomains apart from the normal OpenSim code.

Creating an API is pretty straightforward, but a few naming conventions must be observed for the Api to function correctly. The script runtime uses reflection to match Api runtimes to implementations, and it uses names to find these matches.

First, create your API implementation.

namespace OpenSim.Region.ScriptEngine.Shared.Api
{
    public class XXX_Api: MasrshalByRefObject, IXXX_Api, IScriptApi
    {
       internal IScriptEngine m_ScriptEngine;
       internal SceneObjectPart m_host;
       internal uint m_localID;
       internal LLUUID m_itemID;

       public void Initialize(IScriptEngine ScriptEngine, SceneObjectPart host, uint localID, LLUUID itemID)
       {
           m_ScriptEngine = ScriptEngine;
           m_host = host;
           m_localID = localID;
           m_itemID = itemID;
       }
       
       public void myApiFunction()
       {
       }
    }
}

Here, the class name (XXX_Api) is used by reflection, it must end in "_Api" to be recognized as an Api.

Place the file in OpenSim/Region/ScriptEngines/Shared/Api/Implementaton/

By convention, it should be named XXX_Api.cs

Next, create an interface to link the Api to the runtime:

namespace OpenSim.Region.ScriptEngine.Shared.Api.Interfaces
{
    public interface IXXX_Api
    {
        void myApiFunction();
    }
}

Place this file in OpenSim/Region/ScriptEngines/Api/Interface, named IXXX_Api.

Now, the stub file is needed to connect the script to the Api. This stub file will be loaded into the script AppDomain, and should not contain any processing. It merely forwards the calls to the Api outside of the AppDomain.

namespace OpenSim.Region.ScriptEngine.Shared.ScriptBase
{
    public partial class ScriptBaseClass : MarshalByRefObject
    {
        public IXXX_Api m_XXX_Functions;

        public void ApiTypeXXX(IScriptApi api)
        {
            if(!(api is IXXX_Api))
                return;

            m_XXX_Functions = (IXXX_Api)api;
        }

        public void myApiFunction()
        {
            m_XXX_Functions.myApiFunction();
        }
    }
}

Save this in OpenSim/Region/ScriptEngines/Shared/Api/Runtime, name it XXX_Stub.cs

Here, the ApiTypeXXX naming is the mandatory name, by which the script engine recognizes this Api and matches it up to the API implementation.

Please note that your Api here becomes a part of a partial class, which, in turn, becomes the base class of the script.

On script load, the Api runtime (stub) is called with a reference to the IScriptApi interface of the implementation. That, cast to the custom interface, is used to access the function implementations.

The reason we cannot directly reference the implementation is that that would cause the entire implementation to be loaded into the script's AppDomain. We need to avoid this to keep the memory footprint small.

The directory OpenSim/Region/ScriptEngines/Shared/CodeTools contains all compilers, converters and other code manipulation tools. It is shared between all script engines. Because of the shared compiler, the script engines can also share compiled assemblies, eliminating the need to recompile each script for each script engine.