This is a tiny nanopass compiler for compiling a small subset of Scheme to C. It was developed to be presented at Clojure Conj 2013, in Alexandria, VA. It has been a little over a week and half since I started working on it and I've added more documentation and more tests since Clojure Conj.
There is still much to be done. More tests are needed and a few passes are still not documented, and I still have not tested the boehm collector, though I hope to do so soon.
There are two required git repositories to run this compiler. This repository (of course), and the nanopass framework repository at github.com/akeep/nanopass-framework.
You will also need one of the supported host compilers listed in the next section.
The current version supports three host compilers: Chez Scheme, Ikarus, and Vicare. All three share similar features that are needed by the Nanopass Framework in order to operate.
A free version of the Chez Scheme interpreter, Petite Chez Scheme, is available for download on http://www.scheme.com/. Generally, it is easiest to install the non-threaded version that is available for your machine, and use the 64-bit version, if it is supported on your platform.
In the scheme-to-c directory start petite using the --libdirs command
line switch to tell petite where to find the nanopass-framework directory:
$ petite --libdirs .:<path to nanopass-framework>
Petite Chez Scheme Version 8.4
Copyright (c) 1985-2011 Cadence Research Systems
> (import (c))
> (my-tiny-compile '(+ 4 5))
9
You can run the tests as:
$ petite --libdirs .:<path to nanopass-framework>
Petite Chez Scheme Version 8.4
Copyright (c) 1985-2011 Cadence Research Systems
> (import (tests))
> (run-tests)
running test 0:
0
passed
running test 1:
-5
passed
.
.
.
Ikarus is no longer under active development, but it is easier to install on a
Mac OS X machine than Vicare, so I recommend it if you are on a Mac. You can
find Ikarus at https://launchpad.net/ikarus and you can download it using bzr.
The easiest way to install it is to use the c64 install script. This installs
it into the $HOME/.opt64 subdirectory and you can add $HOME/.opt64/bin to
the path to run ikarus.
When running on ikarus you will also need to add the nanopass-framework
directory to the path in order to run the new compiler. This can be done with
an environment variable, but I generally find it easier to do this on the
ikarus REPL as follows:
$ ikarus
Ikarus Scheme version 0.0.4-rc1+, 64-bit (revision 1870, build 2013-10-16)
Copyright (c) 2006-2009 Abdulaziz Ghuloum
> (library-path (cons "../nanopass-framework" (library-path)))
> (import (c))
> (my-tiny-compiler '(+ 4 5))
9
You can also run the tests through ikarus as follows:
$ ikarus
Ikarus Scheme version 0.0.4-rc1+, 64-bit (revision 1870, build 2013-10-16)
Copyright (c) 2006-2009 Abdulaziz Ghuloum
> (library-path (cons "../nanopass-framework" (library-path)))
> (import (tests))
> (run-tests)
running test 0:
0
passed
running test 1:
-5
passed
.
.
.
Vicare Scheme is a fork of Ikarus that is currently under development.
You can find Vicare at http://marcomaggi.github.io/vicare.html. This can
be installed using the standard GNU style configure script. The only
features we require is posix support, since we need the system call to
shell out to run gcc.
Similar to Ikarus and Chez Scheme, Vicare also needs to be informed of where
to find the nanopass-framework directory. Vicare also needs to be told to
look for additional Scheme file extensions, since I am using .ss instead of
the more recently introduced .sls for R6RS Scheme libraries. Here we can
use the --more-file-extensions and two calls to the --search-path command
line flag, one to search in the nanopass-framework directory and one in the
current directory, ., which is otherwise not included.
$ vicare --more-file-extensions --search-path ../nanopass-framework --search-path .
Vicare Scheme version 0.3d1, 64-bit
Revision no-branch/no-commit
Build 2013-10-15
Copyright (c) 2006-2010 Abdulaziz Ghuloum and contributors
Copyright (c) 2011-2013 Marco Maggi
vicare> (import (c))
vicare> (my-tiny-compile '(+ 4 5))
9
We can also run the tests under Vicare as:
$ vicare --more-file-extensions --search-path ../nanopass-framework --search-path .
Vicare Scheme version 0.3d1, 64-bit
Revision no-branch/no-commit
Build 2013-10-15
Copyright (c) 2006-2010 Abdulaziz Ghuloum and contributors
Copyright (c) 2011-2013 Marco Maggi
vicare> (import (tests))
vicare> (run-tests)
running test 0:
0
passed
running test 1:
-5
passed
.
.
.
- start better documentation of code
- add tests for the compiler
- test on Chez, Ikarus, and Vicare
- test the Boehm garbage collector
- add more and larger tests
- improve the testing framework to allow for quieter output and errors
- add predicates for fixnum and procedure
- finish documentation of code