Added rough set of notes

docs/History.md

@@ -3,6 +3,49 @@ table of contents
 
 - [References](#References)
 
+## TODO
+
+All of the references listed below were used to some extent to write Cyclone.
+
+mention husk-scheme
+
+## Scheme source-to-source transformations
+One of the most important inspiration's for Cyclone was Marc Feeley's [The 90 minute Scheme to C compiler]() which includes a presentation, set of slides, and example code written in Gambit Scheme. Feeley includes an overview of how to compile Scheme to C code using source-to-source transformations, including closure and continuation-passing-style CPS conversions. The 90-minute scc ultimately compiles the code down to a single function and uses jumps to support continuations. This is a bit too limiting for a production compiler, so that part was not used.
+
+## C Runtime
+Henry Baker's paper [CONS Should Not CONS Its Arguments: Cheney on the M.T.A.](http://www.pipeline.com/~hbaker1/CheneyMTA.html) was used as the target runtime as it provides a reasonably fast approach that includes all of the fundamental requirements for a Scheme runtime: tail calls, garbage collection, and continuations.
+
+TODO: explain brief overview of how it works, include some comments from him, explain coding style implications, etc
+
+
+also mention value types from lisp in small pieces
+also mention CHICKEN, a production-quality compiler that uses Baker's approach.
+
+## Scheme standards
+
+r7rs - library (C module) support is the most important, but also exceptions, improvements from r5rs, etc.
+
+
+## Interpreter
+
+used meta-circular interpreter from SICP as a starting point
+
+## Macros
+
+Chibi scheme explicit renaming macros provide an efficient place to start
+
+## future
+
+should consider optimizations from Andrew Appel's book compiling with continuations. he developed a similar compiler for Standard ML of New Jersey, which is referenced by Baker's paper.
+
+## Conclusion
+
+From Feeley's presentation:
+
+> Performance is not so bad with NO optimizations (about 6 times slower than Gambit-C with full optimization)
+
+TODO: include simple, rough measurements of compile time Cyclone vs CHICKEN (most similar compiler)
+
 ## References
 
 - [CONS Should Not CONS Its Arguments, Part II: Cheney on the M.T.A.](http://www.pipeline.com/~hbaker1/CheneyMTA.html), by Henry Baker