mes/README

                                                              -*- org -*-
Mes -- Maxwell Equations of Software

[[https://gitlab.com/janneke/mes][Mes]] aims to create full source bootstrapping for [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guix][GuixSD]] as part of the
[[http://bootstrappable.org][bootstrappable builds]] effort.

It currently consists of a mutual self-hosting [close to Guile-]
Scheme interpreter prototype in C and a Nyacc-based C compiler in
[Guile] Scheme.  This C prototype will be rewritten in [[https://github.com/oriansj/stage0][stage0]] M1
assembly (or possibly stage2 slow-LISP, or ...).

The Scheme interpreter prototype (mes.c) has a Garbage Collector, a
library of loadable Scheme modules-- notably Dominique Boucher's [[https://github.com/schemeway/lalr-scm][LALR]],
Pre-R6RS [[https://www.cs.indiana.edu/chezscheme/syntax-case/old-psyntax.html][portable syntax-case]] with R7RS ellipsis, Matt Wette's [[https://www.nongnu.org/nyacc][Nyacc]],
Guile's [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/docs/master/guile.html/PEG-Parsing.html][PEG]] --and test suite just barely enough to support a simple
REPL (repl.mes) and simple C-compiler (mescc.mes).

The simple C compiler can now compile a [[https://gitlab.com/janneke/tinycc][modified TinyCC]].  This needs
more work.  A with gcc compiled tcc is [[https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/tinycc-devel/2017-05/msg00103.html][known]] to compile GCC.

Mes is inspired by The Maxwell Equations of Software: [[http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/book/LISP%2525201.5%252520Programmers%252520Manual.pdf][LISP-1.5]] -- John
McCarthy page 13, GNU Guix's source/binary packaging transparency and
Jeremiah Orians's stage0 ~300 byte self-hosting hex assembler.

[0] https://gitlab.com/janneke/mes
[1] https://www.gnu.org/software/guix
[2] http://bootstrappable.org
[3] https://github.com/oriansj/stage0
[4] https://github.com/schemeway/lalr-scm
[5] https://www.cs.indiana.edu/chezscheme/syntax-case/old-psyntax.html
[6] https://www.nongnu.org/nyacc
[7] https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/docs/master/guile.html/PEG-Parsing.html
[8] https://gitlab.com/janneke/tinycc
[9] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/tinycc-devel/2017-05/msg00103.html
[10] http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/book/LISP%25201.5%2520Programmers%2520Manual.pdf

Mes is free software, it is distributed under the terms of the GNU
General Public Licence version 3 or later.  See the file COPYING.

* Get it

   git clone https://gitlab.com/janneke/mes

* Build it (see INSTALL for full instructions)

   ./configure
   make all
   make check

* REPL it

   scripts/repl.mes

* Mescc compiler

   scripts/mescc.mes scaffold/main.c > a.out