[cyclone-scheme](http://github.com/justinethier/cyclone) [![Travis CI](https://travis-ci.org/justinethier/cyclone.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/justinethier/cyclone) Cyclone is a brand-new Scheme-to-C compiler that allows practical application development using R7RS Scheme. [Cheney on the MTA](https://github.com/justinethier/cyclone/raw/master/docs/research-papers/CheneyMTA.pdf) is used by Cyclone's runtime to implement full tail recursion, continuations, and generational garbage collection. In addition, the Cheney on the MTA concept has been extended to allow execution of multiple native threads. An on-the-fly garbage collector is used to manage the second-generation heap and perform major collections without "stopping the world". Cyclone is the first compiler written entirely in the latest R7RS Scheme language standard, and the intent is to support as much of that language as possible. Features -------- - Support for the majority of the Scheme language as specified by the latest [R7RS standard](docs/Scheme-Language-Compliance.md). - New features from R7RS including libraries, exceptions, and record types. - Built-in support for Unicode strings and characters. - Hygienic macros based on `syntax-rules` - Low-level explicit renaming macros - Guaranteed tail call optimizations - Native multithreading support - A foreign function interface that allows easy integration with C - A concurrent, generational garbage collector based on Cheney on the MTA - Includes an optimizing Scheme-to-C compiler, - ... as well as an interpreter for debugging - Support for [many popular SRFI's](docs/API.md#srfi-libraries) - Online user manual and API documentation Getting Started --------------- 1. To install Cyclone on your machine for the first time on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, and for Mac users wanting to install without using Homebrew, use [**cyclone-bootstrap**](https://github.com/justinethier/cyclone-bootstrap) to build a set of binaries. Instructions are provided for Linux, Mac, Windows (via MSYS), and FreeBSD 12. Mac users wanting to use Homebrew can do the following: - If Homebrew is not already installed: follow the instructions at [https://brew.sh/](https://brew.sh/) to install the homebrew package manager. - `brew tap cyclone-scheme/cyclone` - `brew install cyclone-scheme/cyclone/cyclone` Arch Linux users can install using the [AUR](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/cyclone-scheme/). 2. After installing you can run the `cyclone` command to compile a single Scheme file: $ cyclone examples/fac.scm $ examples/fac 3628800 And the `icyc` command to start an interactive interpreter: $ icyc :@ @@@ @@@@: `@@@@@+ .@@@+@@@ @@ @@ Cyclone Scheme->C compiler ,@ http://justinethier.github.io/cyclone/ '@ .@ @@ #@ (c) 2014-2019 Justin Ethier `@@@#@@@. Version 0.11 #@@@@@ +@@@+ @@# `@. cyclone> (write 'hello-world) hello-world You can use [`rlwrap`](http://linux.die.net/man/1/rlwrap) to make the interpreter more friendly, EG: `rlwrap icyc`. 3. Read the documentation below for more information on how to use Cyclone. Documentation ------------- - The [User Manual](docs/User-Manual.md) covers in detail how to use Cyclone and provides information on the Scheme language features implemented by Cyclone. - An [API Reference](docs/API.md) is available for all libraries provided by Cyclone, including a complete alphabetical listing. - If you need a resource to start learning the Scheme language you may want to try a classic textbook such as [Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs](https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html). - Finally, this [benchmarks](http://ecraven.github.io/r7rs-benchmarks/benchmark.html) page by [ecraven](https://github.com/ecraven) compares the performance of Cyclone with other Schemes. Example Programs ---------------- Cyclone provides several example programs, including: - [Tail Call Optimization](examples/tail-call-optimization.scm) - A simple example of Scheme tail call optimization; this program runs forever, calling into two mutually recursive functions. - [Threading](examples/threading) - Various examples of multi-threaded programs. - [Game of Life](examples/game-of-life) - The [Conway's game of life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life) example program and libraries from R7RS. - [Game of Life PNG Image Generator](examples/game-of-life-png) - A modified version of game of life that uses libpng to create an image of each iteration instead of writing it to console. This example also demonstrates basic usage of the C Foreign Function Interface (FFI). - Finally, the largest program is the compiler itself. Most of the code is contained in a series of libraries which are used by [`cyclone.scm`](cyclone.scm) and [`icyc.scm`](icyc.scm) to create executables for Cyclone's compiler and interpreter. Compiler Internals ------------------ - [Writing the Cyclone Scheme Compiler](docs/Writing-the-Cyclone-Scheme-Compiler-Revised-2017.md) provides high-level details on how the compiler was written and how it works. - There is a [Development Guide](docs/Development.md) with instructions for common tasks when hacking on the compiler itself. - Cyclone's [Garbage Collector](docs/Garbage-Collector.md) is documented at a high-level. This document includes details on extending Cheney on the MTA to support multiple stacks and fusing that approach with a tri-color marking collector. License ------- Copyright (C) 2014 [Justin Ethier](http://github.com/justinethier). Cyclone is available under the [MIT license](http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php).