From: Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>
To: Alex Vong <alexvong1995@gmail.com>
Cc: guile-user@gnu.org, bootstrappable@freelists.org
Subject: Re: Can Guile be bootstrapped from source without psyntax-pp.scm?
Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2017 21:42:47 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87inj5f2eg.fsf@netris.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87d19dr3kx.fsf@gmail.com> (Alex Vong's message of "Thu, 06 Jul 2017 23:24:14 +0800")
Hi Alex,
Alex Vong <alexvong1995@gmail.com> writes:
> Recently, I've read the chapter on Macros in Guile's manual. The manual
> says that Guile's expander originated from that of Chez Scheme's and
> that version was portable to other schemes as well. So I search the
> Internet and find it[0]. The website states that the expander needs an
> expanded version of itself for bootstrapping, i.e. psyntax.ss needs
> psyntax.pp for bootstrapping.
>
> After playing for awhile, I realize the relationship of Guile's
> psyntax.scm and psyntax-pp.scm is exactly analogus. One needs an
> expanded version of psyntax.scm, i.e. psyntax-pp.scm for bootstrapping.
>
> Does this mean Guile is not bootstrappable from source only?
That's correct. psyntax-pp.scm is not source code, and it is needed to
bootstrap Guile. However, I made an effort some years ago to make
psyntax-pp.scm far smaller and more readable than the corresponding file
from upstream psyntax. See:
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guile.git/commit/?h=stable-2.0&id=72ee0ef71b9a0514874976cdcf3ea9d5333db4b1
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guile.git/commit/?h=stable-2.0&id=1af6d2a717f499564fbbc297c79e00ac14b0dcf9
At this point, I believe it would be quite feasible for a single hacker
to audit our psyntax-pp.scm and compare it to psyntax.scm within a
reasonable time frame. Furthermore, when we make local changes to
psyntax.scm, the corresponding changes to psyntax-pp.scm are localized
and quite easy to audit as well, so the full audit need not be repeated.
Having said this, I agree that it would be better if psyntax.scm were
written in such a way that it could be bootstrapped without the use of
itself. Maybe some day we'll rewrite it to make it so.
Mark
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2017-07-07 1:42 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 6+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2017-07-06 15:24 Can Guile be bootstrapped from source without psyntax-pp.scm? Alex Vong
2017-07-07 1:42 ` Mark H Weaver [this message]
2017-07-07 14:00 ` Alex Vong
2017-07-07 16:40 ` Mark H Weaver
2017-07-07 14:55 ` Jan Nieuwenhuizen
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2021-03-13 22:42 Michael Schierl
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