on bootstrapping: first Mes 0.3 released

[Jan Nieuwenhuizen]

Hi!

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

-- 
Jan Nieuwenhuizen <address@hidden> | GNU LilyPond http://lilypond.org
Freelance IT http://JoyofSource.com | Avatar®  http://AvatarAcademy.nl