mes/HACKING

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-*-mode:org-*-
2016-10-10 21:24:44 +00:00
* SETUP
guix environment -l guix.scm #64 bit + 32bit
guix environment --system=i686-linux -l guix.scm #32 bit only
* ROADMAP
** TODO
*** release 0.x, unsorted
- discuss full source bootstrap strategy on guile-user with Jeremiah
Orians (stage0+) Luca Saiu (GNU Epsilon).
- fix bugs
- produce intermediate annotated assembly-like mes.S
- and/or: connect to OriansJ's stage0...LISP bootstrapping tools
- and/or: connect to GNU Epsilon's VM
- and/or: translate Mes.c interpreter into VM
- and/or: compile Scheme to C, rewrite Mes.c into Mes.scm.
- real module support, bonus for supporting Guile's define-module/define-public syntax
- get full source syntax-case up (Andre van Tonder?) OR drop
psyntax/syntax-case and rewrite Nyacc without syntax-case+R7RS Ellipsis
- support regexp OR rewrite Nyacc without regexps
- split-off Guile C compiler as standalone Guile project, still
respecting no-syntax-case bootstrap requirement
*** Compile the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_C_Compiler][Tiny C Compiler]]
- build tcc (tinycc)
*** release 1.0
- work to replace GuixSD's bootstrap binaries for x86
- more architectures?
** DONE
** 0.5: Mutual self-hosting Scheme interpreter and C compiler: mes.c and mescc,
Support call-with-current-continuation, refactor catch/throw
** 0.4: Support Nyacc, Gcc-compiled Mes compiles minimal main.c using nyacc
** 0.3: Garbage collector
** 0.2: Support psyntax
** 0.1: Mes eval/apply feature complete; support syntax-rules, compile main.c using LALR, dump ELF
* Bugs
** eval_apply/gc + Nyacc bug
scripts/messc.mes intermittently exposes a bug in eval_apply/gc when
Nyacc parses mes.c-sized source. Running
MES_MAX_ARENA=<another-size> scripts/mescc.mes
may [un]cover the bug. So there is probably some eval_apply-construct
that Nyacc uses, possiblby indirectly via with-fluid, like (call/cc,
call-with-current-continuation), that breaks when GC triggers at the
wrong time.
** mescc can only compile itself, it cannot compile tcc, gcc or guile
** mes.mes cannot read sexps, only --dump's, mes.mes cannot --dump
** Bootstrap binary mes is too big and opaque to be considered source
68kB ELF binary which can be disassembled (objdump -d mes.mes).
** Psyntax is too big and opaque to be considered source
And needs a patched Guile-1.8 to [re]generate.
** test/match.test ("nyacc-simple"): hygiene problem in match
** Performance
*** mes is slow
*** The Scheme reader is very slow.
*** mescc is slow
**** compiling mes.c takes mescc.mes 2h30'
mescc.scm which runs on Guile takes 30"
** Fluids are a hack for Nyacc.
*** Translate C-prototype mes.c into annotated hex?
One idea is to use OriansJ's amazing self-hosting [[https://github.com/oriansj/stage0][stage0]] hex assembler
and minimal bootstrap binaries and rewrite the mes.c core to directly
bootstrap into Scheme.
*** Rewrite mes.c in Schemy/Sexp-C and generate annotated hex?
Another idea (thanks Rutger!) is to rewrite the mes.c core in a s-exp
C/Assembly variant and thave mescc produce the simple, annotated
bootstrap binary.
*** Compile the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_C_Compiler][Tiny C Compiler]]
** Build tools do not run on mes
*** configure needs Bash, Guile
*** GNUmakefile needs Bash, Guile
*** build-aux/mes-snarf.scm needs Guile
*** build-aux/git-changelog needs Perl
* OLD: Booting from LISP-1.5 into Mes
Mes started out experimenting with booting from a hex-coded minimal
LISP-1.5 (prototype in mes.c), into an almost-RRS Scheme.
When EOF is read, the LISP-1.5 machine calls loop2 from loop2.mes,
which reads the rest of stdin and takes over control. The functions
readenv, eval and apply-env in mes.mes introduced define, define-macro
quasiquote and macro expansion.
While this works, it's amazingly slow. We implemented a full reader
in mes.c, which makes running mes:apply-env mes:eval somewhat
bearable, still over 1000x slower than running mes.c.
Bootstrapping has been removed and mes.c implements enough of RRS to
run a macro-based define-syntax and syntax-rules.
loop.mes and mes.mes are unused and lagging behind. Probably it's not
worth considering this route without a VM. GNU Epsilon is taking the
more usual VM-route to provide multiple personas. While that sounds
neat, Lisp/Scheme, bootstrapping and trusted binaries are probably not
in scope as there is no mention of such things; only ML is mentioned
while Guile is used for bootstrapping.
* Assorted ideas and info
** Using GDB on assembly/a.out
info registers
p/x $eax
p/x $edx
set disassemble-next-line
gdb-display-disassembly-buffer
b *0x804a79d
** Create memory dump with 32 bit Gcc compiled Mes
make out/i686-unknown-linux-gnu-mes
out/i686-unknown-linux-gnu-mes --dump < module/mes/read-0.mes > module/mes/read-0-32.mo
** C parser/compiler
*** [[https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/nyacc][nyacc]]
*** PEG: [[http://piumarta.com/software/peg/][parse C using PEG]]
*** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_C_Compiler][Tiny C Compiler]]
*** [[http://www.t3x.org/subc/index.html][Sub C]]
*** [[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.lang.lisp/VPuX0VsjTTE][C intepreter in LISP/Scheme/Python]]
** C assembler/linker
*** [[http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Assembly-HOWTO/linux.html][Assembly HOWTO]]
*** ELF
7f 45 4c 46
*** [[http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/software/tiny/][Small ELF programs]]
*** [[http://www.cirosantilli.com/elf-hello-world/][Elf hello world]]
** SC - c as s-expressions
sc: http://sph.mn/content/3d3
** RNRS
*** [[http://www.scheme-reports.org/][Scheme Reports]]
*** [[ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/pdf/AIM-349.pdf][Scheme - Report on Scheme]]
*** [[ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/pdf/AIM-452.pdf][RRS - Revised Report on Scheme]]
** tiny schemes
http://forum.osdev.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=19937
http://www.stripedgazelle.org/joey/dreamos.html
http://armpit.sourceforge.net/
http://common-lisp.net/project/movitz/movitz.html
<civodul> janneke: https://github.com/namin/inc looks interesting [15:18]
** Orians Jeremiah
<OriansJ> janneke: also, if you look at
https://github.com/oriansj/stage0/tree/master/stage2/High_level_prototypes
[the garbage collected lisp I implemented], if there are any pieces
I could add to finish off your mes lisp bootstrap just let me know
because I would be more than happy to do that :D
<janneke> OriansJ: that's what I'm hoping for, that our efforts can be
complementary and we can work together
*** lfam (~lfam@2601:47:4180:2ffb:7c05:17de:cf5f:23ef) has quit: Ping timeout:
246 seconds [00:22]
<janneke> exciting times! [00:23]
<janneke> OriansJ: i looked a few times and saw 'LISP empty', so thanks for
the pointer! [00:24]
<civodul> OriansJ, janneke: from that page, there's also:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160604035203fw_/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/edmund.grimley-evans/bcompiler.html
** C4/C500
https://web.archive.org/web/20160604041431/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/edmund.grimley-evans/cc500/cc500.c
https://github.com/rswier/c4/blob/master/c4.c
** Compilers for free
http://codon.com/compilers-for-free