X-Git-Url: https://thelambdalab.xyz/gitweb/index.cgi?a=blobdiff_plain;f=README.md;h=7551d57cf7083846762c6068c603c56ac582b707;hb=06e491ba288523234b7ee2d310e966e6377bf873;hp=1dcb17d7e40ef2a2302788632a5567689df257e4;hpb=e2e8c8f6d1d43e1044b91080f4cd3922fcd99472;p=scheme.forth.jl.git diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 1dcb17d..7551d57 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -1,15 +1,109 @@ scheme.forth.jl ---------------- +=============== -A hobby scheme interpreter for FORTH 83. Specifically it is targeted at -[forth.jl](http://github.com/tgvaughan/forth.jl) which is an implementation -of FORTH on top of [Julia](http://www.julialang.org), hence the name. -At the moment it is a fairly direct port of Peter Micheaux's [Bootstrap +A hobby Scheme interpreter for FORTH 83. Specifically it is targeted at +[forth.jl](http://github.com/tgvaughan/forth.jl) which is an implementation of +FORTH on top of [Julia](http://www.julialang.org), hence the name. It began +life as a fairly direct port of Peter Micheaux's [Bootstrap Scheme](https://github.com/petermichaux/bootstrap-scheme) (as described in -[this wonderful series of blog posts](http://peter.michaux.ca/articles/scheme-from-scratch-introduction)) -from C to forth, but I plan to go a bit beyond this by implementing some -nice features like garbage collection, macros and a more complete numerical -tower to bring it closer to [R5RS](http://www.schemers.org/Documents/Standards/R5RS/). +[this wonderful series of blog +posts](http://peter.michaux.ca/articles/scheme-from-scratch-introduction)) from +C to forth, but also includes: + +* variadic compound function support, +* pre-evaluation syntactic analysis, +* mark-sweep garbage collection, +* quasiquotation, +* a basic (non-hygienic) macro system and +* first-class continuations via `call-with-current-continuation`. + +Running the interpreter +----------------------- + +To run this Scheme interpreter, first open Julia (forth.jl requires +**version >=1.0**) from the src directory contained in this +repository. If you've not done so already, install forth.jl using the +Julia package manager (accessed using the `]` key): + + (v1.0) pkg> add https://github.com/tgvaughan/forth.jl + +Then, import and run the Forth system: + + julia> import forth + julia> forth.run() + Welcome to forth.jl! + +Once Forth is running, execute the Scheme source and fire up the +REPL using the following commands: + + include scheme.4th ok + scheme repl + Welcome to scheme.forth.jl! + Use Ctrl-D to exit. + + > + +At this point you can start entering Scheme commands. For example, + + > (define (factorial n) + (if (= n 0) + 1 + (* n (factorial (- n 1))))) + ; ok + > (factorial 5) + ; 120 + +Metacircular Evaluator +---------------------- + +Of course, one of the things you can do in Scheme (or of course any programming +language, this is the fundamental thing) is implement an interpreter for +another programming language. The examples directory in this repository +contains a verbatim copy of the source for the "metacircular" scheme interpreter +from SICP. To load it, use the following command: + + > (load "../examples/metacirc.scm") + ; ok + +Be prepared to wait a couple of minutes. When the interpreter finally loads, enter +the following command to run it: + + > (driver-loop) + +You'll then be greeted by the following prompt: + + ;; M-Eval input: + +At this point you can start entering Scheme commands... but be prepared to wait +a while for each result. After all, when evaluating commands in the MCE you are +running a program in a Scheme interpreter running inside another Scheme +interpreter which is itself running on a Forth system that is implemented atop +a virtual register machine running in the Julia numerical computing +environment. **That's four levels of abstraction more than a native Julia +program experiences**, so some delay is to be expected! + +For instance, the following example from SICP defines and demonstrates a +recursive list append procedure: + + (define (append x y) + (if (null? x) + y + (cons (car x) + (append (cdr x) y)))) + + ;;; M-Eval value: + ok + + ;;; M-Eval input: + (append '(a b c) '(d e f)) + + ;;; M-Eval value: + (a b c d e f) + +You may have to wait a minute or so for the final result to be printed. + +License +------- This software is free (as in freedom) and is distributed under the terms of version 3 of the GNU General Public License. A copy of this license