README.md

   1 # mal - Make a Lisp
   2
   3 ## Description
   4
   5 Mal is an interpreter for a subset of the Clojure programming
   6 language. Mal is implemented from scratch in 12 different languages:
   7
   8 * Bash shell
   9 * C
  10 * C#
  11 * Clojure
  12 * Java
  13 * Javascript
  14 * GNU Make
  15 * mal itself
  16 * PHP
  17 * Postscript
  18 * Python
  19 * Ruby
  20
  21
  22 Mal is also a learning tool. Each implentation of mal is separated
  23 into 11 incremental, self-contained (and testable) steps that
  24 demonstrate core concepts of Lisp. The last step is capable of
  25 self-hosting (running the mal implemenation of mal).
  26
  27 The mal (make a lisp) steps are:
  28
  29 * step0_repl
  30 * step1_read_print
  31 * step2_eval
  32 * step3_env
  33 * step4_if_fn_do
  34 * step5_tco
  35 * step6_file
  36 * step7_quote
  37 * step8_macros
  38 * step9_interop
  39 * stepA_more
  40
  41
  42 Mal was presented publicly for the first time in a lightning talk at
  43 Clojure West 2014 (unfortunately there is no video). See
  44 mal/clojurewest2014.mal for the presentation that was given at the
  45 conference (yes the presentation is a mal program).
  46
  47 ## Building/running implementations
  48
  49 ### Bash 4
  50
  51 ```
  52 cd bash
  53 bash stepX_YYY.sh
  54 ```
  55
  56 ### C
  57
  58 The C implementation of mal requires the following libraries: glib,
  59 libffi6 and either the libedit or GNU readline library.
  60
  61 ```
  62 cd c
  63 make
  64 ./stepX_YYY
  65 ```
  66
  67 ### C#
  68
  69 The C# implementation of mal has been tested on Linux using the Mono
  70 C# compiler (mcs) and the Mono runtime (version 2.10.8.1). Both are
  71 required to build and run the C# implementation.
  72
  73 ```
  74 cd cs
  75 make
  76 mono ./stepX_YYY
  77 ```
  78
  79
  80 ### Clojure
  81
  82 ```
  83 cd clojure
  84 lein with-profile +stepX trampoline run
  85 ```
  86
  87 ### Java 1.7
  88
  89 ```
  90 cd java
  91 mvn compile
  92 mvn -quiet exec:java -Dexec.mainClass=mal.stepX_YYY
  93     # OR
  94 mvn -quiet exec:java -Dexec.mainClass=mal.stepX_YYY -Dexec.args="CMDLINE_ARGS"
  95 ```
  96
  97 ### Javascript/Node
  98
  99 ```
 100 cd js
 101 npm update
 102 node stepX_YYY.js
 103 ```
 104
 105 ### Mal
 106
 107 Running the mal implementation of mal involves running stepA of one of
 108 the other implementations and passing the mal step to run as a command
 109 line argument.
 110
 111 ```
 112 cd IMPL
 113 IMPL_STEPA_CMD ../mal/stepX_YYY.mal
 114
 115 ```
 116
 117 ### GNU Make 3.81
 118
 119 ```
 120 cd make
 121 make -f stepX_YYY.mk
 122 ```
 123
 124 ### PHP 5.3
 125
 126 ```
 127 cd php
 128 php stepX_YYY.php
 129 ```
 130
 131 ### Postscript Level 2/3
 132
 133 ```
 134 cd ps
 135 gs -q -dNODISPLAY stepX_YYY.ps
 136 ```
 137
 138 ### Python 2.X
 139
 140 ```
 141 cd python
 142 python stepX_YYY.py
 143 ```
 144
 145 ### Ruby (1.8)
 146
 147 ```
 148 cd ruby
 149 ruby stepX_YYY.rb
 150 ```