🚀 go-pugleaf

   Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 18:08:21 GMT
   From: bri@pegasus.mit.edu (Brian D. Carlstrom)
   Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme.c

   In article <761@jahangir.UUCP> pgw@jahangir.UUCP (phil wilson) writes:
   >I've downloaded src.tar.Z from altdorf:/archive/scheme-7.2, and
   >compiled the microcode into a scheme with only minor twiddling.  The
   >scheme, however, won't run without a runtime.com band.  Now I need, I
   >presume, to transform the .scm files in the runtime directory into a
   >runtime.com band, or some other form that the scheme microcode can
   >load..  But I've been unable to figure out how to do this.  Any
   >pointers would be greatly appreciated.  I'm running System V.3 on a
   >386, if it matters.

   i'm at the same point with 386bsd. any help would be appreciated.

   -bri

src.tar.Z is not sufficient to bootstrap MIT-Scheme.  MIT-Scheme's reader
and syntaxer are written in MIT-Scheme.  That's why altdorf:~ftp/archive/
scheme-7.2/DOS-386/ALPHA.TXT says you need to get 387RUN.ZIP or
NO387RUN.ZIP:

		Under $SCHEME/lib:
	  387RUN.ZIP    ->      RUNTIME.COM     (runtime band)
	  NO387RUN.ZIP  ->      RUNTIME.COM     (runtime band)

	RUNTIME.COM is a binary dump (a "band", or a saved world
	image) of the runtime system.  This is the runtime
	environment, written in Scheme (and compiled to native 386
	code), providing the read-eval-print loop and a rich set of
	runtime utilities.  The version in 387RUN.ZIP contains
	floating point instructions, so you need to have a 387, 487,
	or a 486 (not an SX!)  to use it.  Use the one in
	NO387RUN.ZIP if you don't have a floating point coprocessor.
	You need at least one of the two runtime system bands to use
	Scheme.

There are pre-syntaxed (.bin) files for the reader and syntaxer (and the
rest of the runtime system) that were converted to portable standard binary
(.psb) format and made available in altdorf:~ftp/archive/scheme-7.1/
psb.tar.Z.  They probably won't work in 7.2 and you probably don't want to
try.  Getting from source to a compiled compiler (i.e. a compiler compiled
by an interpreted compiler) requires _days_ worth of _cpu_ time.  You
probably want to just download altdorf:~ftp/archive/scheme-7.2/DOS-386/
no387run.zip.  Please read altdorf:~ftp/archive/scheme-7.2/DOS-386/ALPHA.TXT
while you're at it.

Note: the microcode provides the primitives that encapsulate operating
system services.  The binary dump's (band's, .com's) are dumps of a Scheme
heap without those primitives.  Thus, you can use a band on different
operating systems as long as you load it with a microcode implementing all
the necessary primitives on the local operating system.  (Of course, the
machine architecture has to be the same, else byte-ordering or machine code
instructions will be all wrong.)
--
Matt Birkholz						Cambridge Research Lab
birkholz@crl.dec.com		<DARWIN><		Digital Equipment Corp.