README

   1                                                               -*- org -*-
   2 Mes -- Maxwell Equations of Software
   3
   4 [[https://gitlab.com/janneke/mes][Mes]] aims to help create full source bootstrapping for [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guix][GuixSD]] as part
   5 of the [[http://bootstrappable.org][bootstrappable builds]] effort.
   6
   7 It currently consists of a mutual self-hosting Scheme interpreter
   8 prototype written in C and a Nyacc-based C compiler written in Scheme.
   9 This C prototype is being simplified to be transpiled by [[https://github.com/oriansj/m2-planet][M2-Planet]].
  10
  11 The Scheme interpreter prototype (mes.c) has a Garbage Collector, a
  12 library of loadable Scheme modules-- notably Dominique Boucher's [[https://github.com/schemeway/lalr-scm][LALR]],
  13 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]],
  14 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
  15 REPL and simple C-compiler: MesCC.
  16
  17 Mes+MesCC can compile a only [[https://gitlab.com/janneke/tinycc][lightly modified TinyCC]] that is
  18 self-hosting.  Using the Mes C library, this tcc can now build the
  19 gnutools triplet: binutils-2.14, gcc-2.95.3, glibc-2.2.5.
  20
  21 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
  22 McCarthy page 13, GNU Guix's source/binary packaging transparency and
  23 Jeremiah Orians's stage0 ~300 byte self-hosting hex assembler.
  24
  25 [0] https://gitlab.com/janneke/mes
  26 [1] https://www.gnu.org/software/guix
  27 [2] http://bootstrappable.org
  28 [3] https://github.com/oriansj/m2-planet
  29 [4] https://github.com/schemeway/lalr-scm
  30 [5] https://www.cs.indiana.edu/chezscheme/syntax-case/old-psyntax.html
  31 [6] https://www.nongnu.org/nyacc
  32 [7] https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/docs/master/guile.html/PEG-Parsing.html
  33 [8] https://gitlab.com/janneke/tinycc
  34 [9] http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/book/LISP%25201.5%2520Programmers%2520Manual.pdf
  35 [10] https://github.com/oriansj/stage0
  36
  37 Mes is free software, it is distributed under the terms of the GNU
  38 General Public Licence version 3 or later.  See the file COPYING.
  39
  40 * Get it
  41
  42    git clone https://gitlab.com/janneke/mes
  43
  44 * Build it (see INSTALL for full instructions)
  45
  46    ./configure
  47    make all
  48    make check
  49
  50 * REPL it
  51
  52    src/mes.gcc        # default (64 bit) gcc-compiled
  53    src/mes.mlibc-gcc  # 32 bit, gcc -nostdlib
  54    src/mes            # 32 bit, bootstrapped, mes.M1+MesCC-compiled
  55
  56 * MesCC compiler
  57
  58    scripts/mescc -c scaffold/main.c