guile-prescheme/README.org

#+TITLE: Pre-Scheme for Guile

This project is a work-in-progress port of the Pre-Scheme compiler from [[https://s48.org/][Scheme
48]] to [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/][Guile]].  Pre-Scheme is a statically typed dialect of Scheme which offers
the efficiency and low-level machine access of C while retaining many of the
desirable features of Scheme.

Read the Pre-Scheme manual [[https://thintz.com/resources/prescheme-documentation][here]].

Read the Pre-Scheme paper [[https://dustycloud.org/tmp/prescheme.pdf][here]].

* Where is it up to?

An initial Pre-Scheme "emulation layer" has been implemented, which supports
running Pre-Scheme code in a Guile Scheme interpreter.  This includes features
like the ~define-enumeration~ and ~define-external-enumeration~ macros and a
fake memory driver which supports ~allocate-memory~, ~deallocate-memory~.

This is a *very* fresh port which still requires a good deal of testing and
probably a few rounds of fixes before being considered "complete".

Work continues on porting the Pre-Scheme to C compiler.

* How can I play with it?

** Running the Pre-Scheme emulator

To play with the Pre-Scheme interpreter, you will need ~git~ and ~guile~.  Clone
the repo and start a Guile REPL with ~guile-prescheme~ added to your load-path:

#+BEGIN_SRC shell
guix shell git guile
git clone https://gitlab.com/flatwhatson/guile-prescheme.git
cd guile-prescheme
guile -L .
#+END_SRC

In the Guile REPL, load the Pre-Scheme environment and switch to the Pre-Scheme
language:

#+BEGIN_SRC scheme
(use-modules (system base language))
(set-current-module (default-environment 'prescheme))
,language prescheme
#+END_SRC

Your REPL is now emulating Pre-Scheme!

** Hello, world, Pre-Scheme!

Load up a Pre-Scheme REPL as above, then paste in the following program:

#+BEGIN_SRC scheme
(define (main argc argv)
  (if (= argc 2)
      (let ((out (current-output-port)))
        (write-string "Hello, world, " out)
        (write-string (vector-ref argv 1) out)
        (write-char #\! out)
        (newline out)
        0)
      (let ((out (current-error-port)))
        (write-string "Usage: " out)
        (write-string (vector-ref argv 0) out)
        (write-string " <user>" out)
        (newline out)
        (write-string "  Greets the world & <user>." out)
        (newline out)
        -1)))
#+END_SRC

A Pre-Scheme ~main~ takes ARGC as an int and ARGV as a vector of strings.  As
with a C program, the first argument is the name of the program which was run.

To get the help output:

#+BEGIN_SRC scheme
> (main 1 #("./hello"))
Usage: ./hello <user>
  Greets the world & <user>.
-1
#+END_SRC

To get the greeting:

#+BEGIN_SRC scheme
> (main 2 #("./hello" "Pre-Scheme"))
Hello, world, Pre-Scheme!
0
#+END_SRC

* How can I contribute?

If you would like to learn more, co-ordinate with the developers, or simply hang
out with like-minded Scheme folks, come and join the party in the #guile-steel
channel on the LiberaChat IRC network.