README

   1 #+COMMENT:                                                            -*- org -*-
   2 #+TITLE: About GNU Mes
   3
   4 #+SUBTITLE: Maxwell Equations of Software
   5
   6 [[https://www.gnu.org/software/mes][GNU Mes]] aims to help create full
   7 source bootstrapping for GNU/Linux distributions such as
   8 [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guix][GuixSD]] as part of the
   9 [[http://bootstrappable.org][bootstrappable builds]] effort.
  10
  11 It currently consists of a mutual self-hosting Scheme interpreter
  12 written in ~5,000 LOC of simple C and a Nyacc-based C compiler written
  13 in Scheme.  This mes.c is [[https://github.com/oriansj/mes-m2][being simplified]] to be transpiled by
  14 [[https://github.com/oriansj/m2-planet][M2-Planet]].
  15
  16 The Scheme interpreter prototype (mes.c) has a Garbage Collector, a
  17 library of loadable Scheme modules-- notably Dominique Boucher's [[https://github.com/schemeway/lalr-scm][LALR]],
  18 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]],
  19 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
  20 REPL and simple C-compiler: MesCC.
  21
  22 Mes+MesCC can compile an only [[http://gitlab.com/janneke/tinycc][lightly patched TinyCC]] that is
  23 self-hosting.  Using this tcc and the Mes C library we now have a
  24 reduced-binary-seed bootstrap for the gnutools triplet: glibc-2.2.5,
  25 binutils-2.20.1, gcc-4.1.0.
  26
  27 GNU 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]] --
  28 John McCarthy page 13, GNU Guix's source/binary packaging transparency
  29 and Jeremiah Orians's [[https://github.com/oriansj/stage0][stage0]] ~500 byte self-hosting hex assembler.
  30
  31 GNU Mes is free software, it is distributed under the terms of the GNU
  32 General Public Licence version 3 or later.  See the file [[file:COPYING][COPYING]].
  33
  34 * Get it
  35
  36    #+BEGIN_SRC bash
  37    git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/mes.git
  38    #+END_SRC
  39
  40 * Build it (see [[file:INSTALL][INSTALL]] for full instructions)
  41
  42    #+BEGIN_SRC bash
  43    ./configure
  44    make all
  45    make check
  46    #+END_SRC
  47
  48 * REPL it
  49
  50    #+BEGIN_SRC bash
  51    src/mes.gcc        # default (64 bit) gcc-compiled
  52    src/mes.mlibc-gcc  # 32 bit, gcc -nostdlib
  53    src/mes            # 32 bit, bootstrapped, mes.M1+MesCC-compiled
  54    #+END_SRC
  55
  56 * MesCC compiler
  57
  58    #+BEGIN_SRC bash
  59    scripts/mescc -c scaffold/main.c
  60    #+END_SRC
  61
  62 * Bugs
  63
  64     Please send Mes bug reports to [[mailto:bug-mes@gnu.org][bug-mes@gnu.org]].
  65
  66 * Links
  67   [0] https://www.gnu.org/software/mes
  68   [1] https://www.gnu.org/software/guix
  69   [2] http://bootstrappable.org
  70   [3] https://github.com/oriansj/mes-m2
  71   [4] https://github.com/oriansj/m2-planet
  72   [5] https://github.com/schemeway/lalr-scm
  73   [6] https://www.cs.indiana.edu/chezscheme/syntax-case/old-psyntax.html
  74   [7] https://www.nongnu.org/nyacc
  75   [8] http://gitlab.com/janneke/tinycc
  76   [9] [[http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/book/LISP%201.5%20Programmers%20Manual.pdf]]
  77   [10] https://github.com/oriansj/stage0
  78
  79 * Legalese
  80 Copyright © 2016,2017,2018 Jan (janneke) Nieuwenhuizen <[[mailto:janneke@gnu.org][janneke@gnu.org]]>
  81
  82   Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
  83   are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
  84   notice and this notice are preserved.