4 ms·

I believe MIT Scheme compiled directly to C by intermingling switch statements and gotos to emulate its call stack. Problem was, as programs grew, compile times

I believe MIT Scheme compiled directly to C by intermingling switch statements and gotos to emulate its call stack. Problem was, as programs grew, compile times weren't linear. I gave it a shot once, it was a somewhat spiritual experience: https://github.com/glouw/switch https://github.com/glouw/switch

kkylin 1y ago
Thanks! Do you mean MIT Scheme's C backend? I've used MIT Scheme on and off for a long time and have never touched the C backend & have no idea how it works, so this is interesting. (MIT Scheme also has a native code compiler for Intel CPUs, which seems to be what most users of MIT Scheme (an admittedly small community) actually use.)
- glouwbug 1y ago
  If you'd like to define the backend like this, it's the easiest way to compile to C; we're just repurposing C as a general-purpose assembler: https://glouw.com/2023/11/07/Switch.html https://glouw.com/2023/11/07/Switch.html I believe MIT-scheme took it a step further with gnu extensions which allowed you to take the address of a label like &&label, which allowed for function pointers: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Labels-as-Values.html https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Labels-as-Values.html
f1shy 1y ago
I think a very rudimentary implementation (which is easy to understand) is in the SICP book
- soegaard 1y ago
  Even MIT Scheme was used with SICP, the Scheme implementation in the book is different from MIT Scheme. MIT Scheme was for a long period one of the leading Scheme implementations. It lacks support for Apple Silicon, so it is not as popular now, as it once was. https://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/ https://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/
  - f1shy 1y ago
    Yes. In Apple the memory can be writable XOR executable. MIT scheme needs to write on pages that will execute, so it will trigger the MMU..
  - anthk 1y ago
    Install chicken scheme. Then: sudo chicken-install srfi-203 sudo chicken-install srfi-216 At ~/.csirc put: (import scheme) (import (srfi 203)) (import (srfi 216)) Now you can do nearly all the execises.
shawn_w 1y ago
I don't see anything in the manual about MIT scheme compiling to C, just to its own native code object files and some portable bytecode... https://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/documentation/stable/mit-scheme-user/Compilation-Procedures.html https://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/documentation/stable...
- aag 1y ago
  It's there, but the documentation is weak. The release notes from long ago when that back end was released are here, and give some detail: https://share.google/xmUnDhC7lndujD7TI https://share.google/xmUnDhC7lndujD7TI

kkylin 1y ago

Thanks! Do you mean MIT Scheme's C backend? I've used MIT Scheme on and off for a long time and have never touched the C backend & have no idea how it works, so this is interesting. (MIT Scheme also has a native code compiler for Intel CPUs, which seems to be what most users of MIT Scheme (an admittedly small community) actually use.)

glouwbug 1y ago
If you'd like to define the backend like this, it's the easiest way to compile to C; we're just repurposing C as a general-purpose assembler: https://glouw.com/2023/11/07/Switch.html https://glouw.com/2023/11/07/Switch.html I believe MIT-scheme took it a step further with gnu extensions which allowed you to take the address of a label like &&label, which allowed for function pointers: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Labels-as-Values.html https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Labels-as-Values.html

f1shy 1y ago

I think a very rudimentary implementation (which is easy to understand) is in the SICP book

soegaard 1y ago
Even MIT Scheme was used with SICP, the Scheme implementation in the book is different from MIT Scheme. MIT Scheme was for a long period one of the leading Scheme implementations. It lacks support for Apple Silicon, so it is not as popular now, as it once was. https://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/ https://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/
- f1shy 1y ago
  Yes. In Apple the memory can be writable XOR executable. MIT scheme needs to write on pages that will execute, so it will trigger the MMU..
- anthk 1y ago
  Install chicken scheme. Then: sudo chicken-install srfi-203 sudo chicken-install srfi-216 At ~/.csirc put: (import scheme) (import (srfi 203)) (import (srfi 216)) Now you can do nearly all the execises.

shawn_w 1y ago

I don't see anything in the manual about MIT scheme compiling to C, just to its own native code object files and some portable bytecode... https://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/documentation/stable/mit-scheme-user/Compilation-Procedures.html https://www.gnu.org/software/mit-scheme/documentation/stable...

aag 1y ago
It's there, but the documentation is weak. The release notes from long ago when that back end was released are here, and give some detail: https://share.google/xmUnDhC7lndujD7TI https://share.google/xmUnDhC7lndujD7TI