Subject: on bootstrapping: first Mes 0.3 released I am pleased to announce the first release of Mes: 0.3, representing 152 commits over 3 months since the second status report[1]. * About Mes aims to create an entirely source-based bootstrapping path. The target is to [have GuixSD] boostrap from a minimal, easily inspectable binary --that should be readable as source-- into something close to R6RS Scheme. As bootstrapping is presumably easiest and probably most fun with Scheme, the next step for Mes is mescc: a C compiler/linker to boostrap into GNU Gcc and GNU Guile, possibly via Tiny-CC. It currently has an interpreter written in C (mes) with Garbage Collector (Jam Scraper), a library of loadable Scheme modules with test suite just barely enough to support a simple REPL (repl.mes) and a proof-of-concept c-compiler (mescc.mes) that produces an elf from the simplest of C files. Mes is inspired by The Maxwell Equations of Software: LISP-1.5[2] -- John McCarthy page 13 * Download git clone https://gitlab.com/janneke/mes wget https://gitlab.com/janneke/mes/repository/archive.tar.gz?ref=v0.3 -O mes-0.3.tar.gz Mes runs from the source tree and can also be built, packaged and installed in Guix[SD] by the usual guix package -f guix.scm * Changes in 0.3 since 0.2 ** Core *** Number-based rather than pointer-based cells. *** Garbage collector aka Jam scraper. A variant on SICP's stop and copy Garbage Collector (Jam Scraper?) algorithm has been implemented. *** The reader has been moved to Scheme. ** Language *** Simple loadable modules. *** Srfi-9 and match use handwritten syntax-rules (mes-use-module (mes syntax)). *** Optional syntax-case using psyntax (mes-use-module (mes psyntax)). ** Noteworthy bug fixes *** Srfi-0 has been fixed. * Changes in 0.2 since 0.1 ** Core *** Names of symbols and strings are list of characters [WAS: c-string]. *** Sc-expand from pre-R6RS's psyntax has been integrated. *** Undefined variable error now shows the name of the undefined variable. *** There is now only one SCM type for builtin functions. *** Macro expansion has been cleaned-up. ** Language *** Mes now provides a subset of R6RS. *** Mes now provides syntax-case. *** Mes now provides `load'. ** Noteworthy bug fixes *** Using values as second parameter of builtin function yields first value. *** Quoted internals (e.g. 'if 'lambda) are now symbols. *** Syntax error now exits. *** Make+Bash voodoo has been replaced by build-aux/mes-snarf.scm. *** Apply now accepts multiple list arguments. *** Apply of character, inernal, number, string is an error. *** Quasisyntax reading * Changes in 0.1 (since progress report #2) ** Core *** expand_macro is now a separate function. *** A smaller core can now compiled using BOOT=1. The smaller core does not provide define, define-macro, or quasiquote; these are provided from a Scheme version of implemented eval/apply. ** Language *** Mes now provides a subset of R5RS. *** Mes now provides let-syntax. *** Mes now provides match. *** Mes now provides quasisyntax, unsyntax and unsyntax-splicing. ** User interface *** Mes now provides a REPL, run: scripts/repl.mes *** Mes compiler can be run as a script: scripts/mescc.mes doc/examples/main.c *** Macro expansion can be inspected in the REPL, e.g.: ,expand (and 0 1) ** Noteworthy bug fixes *** Performance: scripts/mescc.mes now takes 2s to compile main.c (was 1'20"). *** Symbols are now truly unique. * '(), #t, #f are no longer symbols. Greetings, Jan [1] https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/guile-user/2016-09/msg00061.html [2] http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/book/LISP%25201.5%2520Programmers%2520Manual.pdf