Subject: Re: [EXT] Bug#22366 Status? Chicken Scheme release tarballs ship non-source C code

From: "Thompson, David" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 14 May 2020 15:04:45 -0400

On Tue, May 12, 2020 at 7:33 PM zimoun <[email-masked]> wrote:
>
> Dear David,
>
> The bug report [1] opened more than 4 years ago about the Chicken
> bootstrapping is still pending.
>
> I am not sure to understand these lines; quoting you [1]:
>
> <<
>     Generated from optimizer.scm by the CHICKEN compiler
>
> This is *not* source code, it's a binary disguised as C source code.
> >>
>
> Why is it an issue for bootstrappability?

Because software is not bootstrappable if it requires taking for
granted files that are not source code.  In this case, it is these C
files.  These files are not source code because they are machine
generated.  In order to generate these files, you need a Chicken
Scheme compiler.  Therefore, you cannot build Chicken Scheme from
source code without already having Chicken Scheme, which makes it
non-bootstrappable.  I have not kept track of this issue but my
understanding was that the Chicken developers do not care (which is
unfortunately a very common reaction from developers of self-hosted
compilers) but it is nevertheless a bootstrapping issue.

> Thank you in advance for any comments.
> Or could this bug report be closed?

I don't think this can be closed because it is still an issue.

 - Dave