Subject: Re: [bug#31940] [PATCH] gnu: Add Stalin.

From: Adam Massmann <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2018 21:07:29 -0400

Hi Ludo,

[email-masked] (Ludovic Courtès) writes:

> I applied the patch, but I added a FIXME about the fact that it’s
> “yogurt software” as Ricardo says: its “source” includes C files
> generated by itself, which are obviously not source code.  We try to
> avoid that, but OTOH we already have the same problem for several
> compilers, for instance MIT/GNU Scheme.
>
> From the README, previous versions were apparently bootstrapped using
> a separate Scheme->C compiler.  We could perhaps fix the problem by
> building one of these older versions of Stalin, and using it to build
> the latest one.  Would you like to give it a try?  (On this topic,
> don’t miss <http://bootstrappable.org/>.)

Thanks a lot for the code review and feedback - it's very helpful for me
as I learn. At first glance I think in this case, as you point out, we
should be able to use Scheme->C to generate the C files explicitly in
the build process. Also, some of the documentation suggests that
upstream *might* maintain a Scheme->C version for v0.11 and be willing
to share it, which would make it even easier.

I put it on my TODO list to dig in and try to fix it, but realistically
might not get to it until August due to work. Bootstrapping the build
should also extend the package to other architectures, which was
something I also wanted to do at some point.

> Anyway, thanks for the patch!

Thank you!