guilescript

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• What is GuileScript?

[[https://github.com/aconchillo/guilescript/actions/workflows/guile2.2.yml][https://github.com/aconchillo/guilescript/actions/workflows/guile3.0.yml/badge.svg]]

GuileScript is currently a toy compiler that aims to compile [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/][Guile]] to JavaScript. It currently doesn't do much, but it might in the future.

• Why?

Because, why not? [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/][Guile]] is actually a lot of fun and I just got jealous that people could do these sort of [[https://twitter.com/zaneshelby/status/1477988369154121734?s=20][cool things with ClojureScript]] and I couldn't with Guile. But thanks to GuileScript it is now with [[https://github.com/aconchillo/gas][gas]].

• How does it work?

GuileScript leverages [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/manual/html_node/Compiler-Tower.html][Guile's Compiler Tower]]. It compiles Guile code into [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/manual/html_node/Tree_002dIL.html][Tree-IL]] and then compiles Tree-IL into JavaScript.

Tree-IL is the first intermediate language (the main one actually being [[https://www.gnu.org/software/guile/manual/html_node/Continuation_002dPassing-Style.html][CPS]]) that Guile code is actually converted to, so the only thing that I needed to do is figure out how Tree-IL works plus get some inspiration from [[https://github.com/clojure/clojurescript/blob/v0.0/src/clj/clojure/cljs.clj][ClojureScript first commit]].

• How do I try it out?

Clone the repository and run:

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE $ autoreconf -vif $ ./configure $ make $ sudo make install #+END_EXAMPLE

If you are on macOS you can actually install GuileScript through [[https://github.com/aconchillo/homebrew-guile][Guile Homebrew]]:

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE $ brew install aconchillo/guile/guilescript #+END_EXAMPLE

If everything builds and installs fine you can try to compile one of the provided examples (e.g. =examples/fibonacci.gs=):

#+BEGIN_SRC scheme (define (fib n) (if (<= n 1) 1 (+ (fib (- n 2)) (fib (- n 1))))) #+END_SRC

#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE $ guilescript examples/fibonacci.gs #+END_EXAMPLE

which in this case would generate something like:

#+BEGIN_SRC javascript var fib = function fib(n) { return ((n<=1) ? 1 : (fib((n-2))+fib((n-1)))); }; #+END_SRC javascript

• What's missing?

Too many things, but just to name a few:

• More types: maps, sets...

• More vector and string functions.

• Support formatting in logging functions.

• Integration with Google's [[https://developers.google.com/closure/compiler][Closure Compiler]].

And even long term:

• Modules.

• NodeJS integration.

• What's supported?

** Types

| GuileScript | JavaScript | |-------------+------------| | #nil | null | |-------------+------------| | "guile" | "guile" | |-------------+------------| | 'guile | guile | |-------------+------------| | #t | true | |-------------+------------| | #f | false | |-------------+------------| | 234 | 234 | |-------------+------------| | 0.5 | 0.5 | |-------------+------------| | 1/2 | 0.5 | |-------------+------------| | #(1 2 3) | [1,2,3] | |-------------+------------|

** Strings

| GuileScript | JavaScript | |---------------------+------------| | (string-length s) | s.length | |---------------------+------------| | (string-ref s i) | s[i] | |---------------------+------------|

** Vectors

| GuileScript | JavaScript | |---------------------+------------| | (vector-length v) | v.length | |---------------------+------------| | (vector-ref v i) | v[i] | |---------------------+------------| | (vector-set! v i m) | v[i] = m | |---------------------+------------|

** Objects

| GuileScript | JavaScript | |---------------------------------------+---------------------------| | (js-invoke obj 'method arg1 ... argN) | obj.method(arg1,...,argN) | |---------------------------------------+---------------------------| | (js-new "type" arg1 ... argN) | new type(arg1,...,argN) | |---------------------------------------+---------------------------| | (js-ref obj 'prop) | obj.prop | |---------------------------------------+---------------------------| | (js-set! obj 'prop value) | obj.prop = value | |---------------------------------------+---------------------------|

Note that ~(js-set! obj prop value)~ is just a shortcut to ~(set! (js-ref obj prop) value)~.

** Operators

| GuileScript | JavaScript | |-------------------+-------------------| | + - * / < > <= >= | + - * / < > <= >= | |-------------------+-------------------| | equal? | === | |-------------------+-------------------|

** Math

| GuileScript | JavaScript | |-------------+------------| | abs | Math.abs | |-------------+------------| | ceiling | Math.ceil | |-------------+------------| | floor | Math.floor | |-------------+------------| | max | Math.max | |-------------+------------| | min | Math.min | |-------------+------------| | round | Math.round | |-------------+------------|

** Logging (just simple strings)

| GuileScript | JavaScript | |---------------+---------------| | console-log | console.log | |---------------+---------------| | console-debug | console.debug | |---------------+---------------| | console-error | console.error | |---------------+---------------| | console-warn | console.warn | |---------------+---------------|

** Basic constructs

| GuileScript | JavaScript | |-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | (define a 23) | var a = 23; | |-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | (set! a 45) | a = 45; | |-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | (begin e1 e2 ... eN) | (function () { e1; e2; ... return eN; })() | |-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | (if test then else) | (test ? then : else) | |-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | (cond ((t1 e1) (t2 e2) (else e3)) | With simple e1, e2, e3: (function () { return (t1 ? e1 : (t2 ? e2 : e3)) })() | |-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | (when test e1 e2 ... eN) | (function () { if (test) { e1; e2; ... return eN; } })() | |-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | (let ((x 0) ...) e1 ... eN) | (function () { var x = 0; var ...; e1; ... return eN; })() | |-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | (let lp ((x 0) (y 0)) e1 ... eN) | (function () { var lp = function(x,y) { ... return eN; }; return lp(0, 0); })() | |-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | (lambda (x y) ... eN) | (function (x, y) { ... return eN; }) | |-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | (define (f x y) ... eN) | var f = function f(x, y) { ... return eN; }; | |-----------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

** Macros

Macros (define-syntax, syntax-rules, syntax-case) just work out of the box. This is because the Scheme-To-Tree-IL compiler performs macro expansion at the same time it analyzes the code, producing expanded Tree-IL expressions which is what GuileScript actually needs.

• License

Copyright (C) 2022 Aleix Conchillo Flaque [email protected]

GuileScript is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

GuileScript is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with GuileScript. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.