91 lines
4.1 KiB
Org Mode
91 lines
4.1 KiB
Org Mode
#+COMMENT: -*- org -*-
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#+TITLE: About GNU Mes
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#+SUBTITLE: Maxwell Equations of Software
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[[https://www.gnu.org/software/mes][GNU Mes]] is a Scheme interpreter and C compiler for bootstrapping the GNU
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System. It has helped to decimate the number and size of binary seeds
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that were used in the bootstrap of [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guix][GNU Guix]] 1.0. Recently, version
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0.24.2 has realized the first [[https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2023/the-full-source-bootstrap-building-from-source-all-the-way-down/][Full Source Bootstrap]] for Guix. The final
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goal is to help create a full source bootstrap as part of the
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[[https://bootstrappable.org][bootstrappable builds]] effort for any UNIX-like operating system.
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The Scheme interpreter is written in ~5,000 LOC of simple C, and the C
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compiler written in Scheme and these are mutual self-hosting. Mes can
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now be bootstrapped from [[https://github.com/oriansj/m2-planet][M2-Planet]] and [[https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/mescc-tools][Mescc-Tools]].
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Mes has a Garbage Collector, a library of loadable Scheme modules--
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notably Dominique Boucher's [[https://github.com/schemeway/lalr-scm][LALR]], Pre-R6RS [[https://www.cs.indiana.edu/chezscheme/syntax-case/old-psyntax.html][portable syntax-case]] with
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R7RS ellipsis, Matt Wette's [[https://www.nongnu.org/nyacc][Nyacc]] --and test suite, just enough to
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support a REPL and a C99 compiler: mescc.
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Mes + MesCC + Mes C Library can build a [[https://gitlab.com/janneke/tinycc][bootstrappable TinyCC]] that is
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self-hosting. Using this bootstrappable-tcc and the Mes C library we
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can build an ancient version of the GNU tools triplet: glibc-2.2.5,
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binutils-2.20.1, gcc-2.95.3. This is enough to bootstrap Guix for
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i686-linux, x86_64-linux, armhf-linux and aarch64-linux.
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Mes was inspired by The Maxwell Equations of Software: [[https://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/book/LISP%201.5%20Programmers%20Manual.pdf][LISP-1.5]] -- John
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McCarthy page 13, Guix's source/binary packaging transparency and
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Jeremiah Orians's [[https://github.com/oriansj/stage0][stage0]], a ~500-byte self-hosting hex assembler.
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We are very grateful to NLNet for sponsoring the [[https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes][Reduced Binary Seed
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bootstrap]], the [[https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes-arm][ARM port]], and the [[https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes-ARM_RISC-V][Full Source Bootstrap.]]
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GNU Mes is free software, it is distributed under the terms of the GNU
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General Public Licence version 3 or later. See the file [[file:COPYING][COPYING]].
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* Get it
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#+BEGIN_SRC bash
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git clone git://git.savannah.gnu.org/mes.git
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#+END_SRC
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* Build it (see [[file:INSTALL][INSTALL]] for full instructions)
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#+BEGIN_SRC bash
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./configure
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make all
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make check
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#+END_SRC
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* REPL it
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#+BEGIN_SRC bash
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./pre-inst-env mes
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#+END_SRC
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* MesCC compiler
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#+BEGIN_SRC bash
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./pre-inst-env mescc -c scaffold/main.c
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#+END_SRC
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* Bugs
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Please send Mes bug reports to [[mailto:bug-mes@gnu.org][bug-mes@gnu.org]].
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* Links
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[0] https://www.gnu.org/software/mes
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[1] https://www.gnu.org/software/guix
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[2] https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2023/the-full-source-bootstrap-building-from-source-all-the-way-down/
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[3] https://bootstrappable.org
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[4] https://github.com/oriansj/m2-planet
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[5] https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/mescc-tools
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[6] https://github.com/schemeway/lalr-scm
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[7] https://www.cs.indiana.edu/chezscheme/syntax-case/old-psyntax.html
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[8] https://www.nongnu.org/nyacc
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[9] https://gitlab.com/janneke/tinycc
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[10] [[https://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/book/LISP%201.5%20Programmers%20Manual.pdf]]
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[11] https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/stage0
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[12] https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes
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[13] https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes-arm
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[14] https://nlnet.nl/project/GNUMes-ARM_RISC-V
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* Legalese
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Copyright © 2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,2022,2023 Jan (janneke) Nieuwenhuizen <[[mailto:janneke@gnu.org][janneke@gnu.org]]>
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Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
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are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
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notice and this notice are preserved.
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