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https://github.com/mighty-gerbils/gerbil

Gerbil Scheme
https://github.com/mighty-gerbils/gerbil

gambit gerbil gerbil-scheme scheme

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Gerbil Scheme

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README 

        
# Gerbil Scheme



Gerbil is an opinionated, some might even say tendentious, dialect of

Scheme designed for systems programming. It provides a state of the

art macro and module system on top of the Gambit runtime and compiler

and an extensive standard library. One way to think of Gerbil is as the C++ to Marc Feeley's C.



The macro system is based on quote-syntax, and provides the full

meta-syntactic tower with a native implementation of syntax-case.

It also provides a full-blown module system, similar to PLT Scheme's

(sorry, Racket's) modules. The main difference from Racket is that

Gerbil modules are single instantiation, supporting high performance

ahead of time compilation and compiled macros.



- [Installation](#installation)

- [Using Gerbil](#using-gerbil)

- [Documentation](#documentation)

- [License and Copyright](#license-and-copyright)

- [Epilogue](#epilogue)



# Installation



The source code for Gerbil is hosted on [GitHub](https://github.com/mighty-gerbils/gerbil),

with the latest release available in [releases](https://github.com/mighty-gerbils/gerbil/releases).



**If you are on Linux** installation from source is straightforward:



```shell

$ git clone [email protected]:mighty-gerbils/gerbil.git

$ cd gerbil

$ ./configure

$ make -j4

$ sudo make install

```



This will install Gerbil in `/opt/gerbil`; all you have to do then is

add `/opt/gerbil/bin` to your path. Obviously, you can customize the

install prefix by using the `--prefix=/path/to/gerbil/installation`

configure option.



**Note** the default configuration has some dependencies you may need

to install: sqlite, zlib, and libcrypto/openssl.

You can install them in ubuntu with:



```shell

$ sudo apt install libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libsqlite3-dev

```



**Note** If you want to install the latest release (v0.18), you can also use the precompiled binary packages for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and CentOS. They are available in the [v0.18 release](https://github.com/mighty-gerbils/gerbil/releases/tag/v0.18) page.



**If you are on MacOS** you can install Gerbil using our [brew formula](https://github.com/mighty-gerbils/homebrew-gerbil):



```shell

$ brew install mighty-gerbils/gerbil/gerbil-scheme

```



For more detailed installation instructions see the [Guide](https://cons.io/guide/).



# Using Gerbil



The Gerbil interpreter is `gxi`, and the compiler is `gxc`.



If you want an interactive Gerbil shell just execute the interpreter

directly by running `gxi`.



For "hello, world" see the [Guide](https://cons.io/guide/intro.html#hello-world).



# Documentation



The [documentation](https://cons.io) is a work in progress, but there are some resources

that should get you started:



- The [Introduction to Gerbil](https://cons.io/guide/intro.html) is an introductory guide

  for seasoned Schemers.

- The [Getting Started](https://cons.io/guide/getting-started.html) page covers the very basics

  of setting up your Gerbil installation and writing your first code.

- The [Gerbil Tutorial](https://cons.io/tutorials/) provides a few hands-on guides

  on Gerbil programming.

- The [Gerbil Reference Documentation](https://cons.io/reference/) is the reference documentation

  for the Gerbil runtime and standard library.

- See also the [Developing Software with Gerbil](https://cons.io/reference/dev) section in the

  hyperspec for general software development practices with Gerbil.



The documentation is automatically rendered online at [cons.io](https://cons.io).

You can render it locally by running `doc/build.sh`, which will leave

the html output in `doc/.vuepress/dist`; the script uses vuepress and

requires npm to be installed.



## Deep Dive



Probably the best way to dive into Gerbil is by reading the sources,

as all the main language features are exercised in one way or another

within the implementation.



Depending on your inclinations, there are several starting points:



- If you are interested in general purpose programming, then you should look at

  the [stdlib sources](src/std).

- If you are interested in Gerbil macrology, then the place to start is the [core prelude](src/gerbil/prelude/core.ss).

  This is the language that you get in the interpreter and what is available

  when writing a new module without explicitly specifying a prelude.

- If you are interested in the Gerbil expander internals, then you should look at

  the [expander sources](src/gerbil/expander).

- If you are interested in the Gerbil compiler internals, then you should look at

  the [compiler sources](src/gerbil/compiler).



For questions and support, you can find us on gitter in [#gerbil-scheme](https://gitter.im/gerbil-scheme/community).



# License and Copyright



## Source Code



The source code is distributed with the Gambit license; that means

that Gerbil on Gambit is dual licensed under LGPLv2.1 and Apache 2.0.



Gerbil's original author and primary maintainer is vyzo, aka in the

Net as Dimitris Vyzovitis. The obligatory copyright notice, had I

bothered and polluted everything with more than a (C) vyzo, would read

like this:



```

© 2007-2023 Dimitris Vyzovitis and contributors

Gerbil is Free Software, distributed under the GNU LGPLv2.1 or later

and the Apache 2.0 license.

```



The implementations of srfi 115 and srfi 159 come from Chibi, as these

are the only available reference implementations. As such, they are

© Alex Shinn and distributed under a BSD-style license.



## Logo



The Gerbil Scheme logo is © 2019 Brad Christensen. The logo, its

variations, and derivatives found within the official Gerbil Scheme

code repository are provided under a royalty-free non-exclusive

license for use by any person or entity wanting to use them solely

in the context of the Gerbil Scheme programming language, including

for commercial use, and grants them the rights to copy, distribute,

display, and create derivative works so long as those derivatives

are made available under this same license.



Creators of derivatives are encouraged to offer them for inclusion

to the official code or associated Gerbil Scheme repository, where

upon acceptance they will be easier to find and use (for example

in documentation and acticles) by the community at large.

Furthermore, a derivative's terms of use will be made available

by the statements here.



This license in no way guarantees the availability of the logo, or

any of its variations or derivitives in the future.



# Epilogue



Gerbil had been vyzo's private Scheme for many years, evolved out of a

set of common macros that were used across different implementations

and eventually a full-blown PLT macro language for actor oriented

distributed programming. As such, there have been multiple backends

that supported the evolution of the Gerbil dialect, but vyzo elected

to base the canonical version of Gerbil on Gambit because it is the

most portable, performant and low-level Scheme kernel available.



At the prompting of some friends (they know who they are), who had

seen private versions of Gerbil, vyzo decided to release it in public

with a clean source-based bootstrap version that bootstraps on gambit

with a precompiled version of the macro system and compiler. That

means that the system could be (and now is) entirely self-hosted.



Gerbil is under continuous use and development.

The core language has been stable for a while, but we are busy porting

batteries, adding features, fixing bugs, and expanding the scope of

syntactic abstraction.



Patches (even for typos in the comments) are always welcome.

No copyright assignment ever, you keep what you contribute.