Had a most lovely---almost 2h---video chat session with @ekaitz_zarraga and Timothy Sample (GNU Mes contributor and author of Germ) on the workings of Ekaitz' rewrite of Mes from a Scheme interpreter to a compiler.

AIUI, Guile Scheme has some interesting characteristics that prevent the Mes compiler from using some simple and low hanging fruit performance improvements. Sorry for being vague, Ekaitz can elaborate.

Wondering if these are also "slowing down" Guile so much---and if not, why not?---and if anything could be done about that.

#GNU
#Guile
#Guix
#Mes
#bootstrappable
#fullSourceBootstrap
@civodul
@wingo
@reproducible_builds
@nlnet
@guix

#GNU Mes 0.27.1 released: A bug-fix release that supports

* development build with gcc-14
* building with M2-Planet 1.12.0
* building on x86-linux with M2-Planet 1.13.0
* building bootstrappable-tcc using 1.00.02 <= NYACC <= 2.02.2

<https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2025-08/msg00005.html>

Thanks to @ekaitz_zarraga and @stikonas!

#GnuMes
#bootstrappable
#BootstrappableBuilds
#ReproducibleBuilds
@reproducible_builds
@fsf
@fsfe
@gnutools
@nlnet

Normally, I'm not a big fan of those "distro within distro" approach, but in order to get a cross-distro well-defined developper tool set (especially linters that tend to change quite a bit from version to version), bootstrapping is still the most feasible solution.

Patch series ending in https://github.com/just-buildsystem/justbuild/commit/4b40928323cb79aa8d68c5073125dd887c372b7a

#bootstrappable builds solve it, and we make sure not to affect regular building/testing/packaging

Good and bad #bootstrapping and #lisp news.
Timothy Sample has been exploring to write a #bootstrappable syntax-case implementation (the first?) and using GNU Mes to prototype that, sponsored by @nlnet .

Sadly, it didn't perform and #NLnet apparently didn't choose to extend his grant. (Boo!)

Edit: I was contacted by NLnet and they convinced me that they never denied such an extension (or new grant) proposal.
So...that's probably double sad...this seems to have been a most classical communication problem (seen Black Mirror S07E05?).

Edit: Also, the "Boo!" was primarily directed at the possibility of the EU retracting funding, NLnet is doing very important work, and amazingly so.

Anyway, Timothy is now writing another bootstrappable lisp implementation: Germ. It's still pretty early days but it's looking great. So happy with this!

https://ngyro.com/blog/introducing-germ-lisp.html

Thanks @brianokken for mentioning my blog on @pythonbytes podcast. Looks like I need to add my surname pronunciation to the blog. https://www.youtube.com/live/P0VHDhUaWlo?t=1289s

The blog post in question is https://filip.lajszczak.dev/my-land-of-scheme-2025.html It’s meant for people who aren’t up to date with what’s happening in the Scheme world, providing a quick overview of recent developments. That includes @dthompson work on Haunt, @civodul on Guix and Shepherd, @janneke on Mes, @spritely on Goblins and Hoot, and @flatwhatson on Pre-Scheme.

#haunt #guix #bootstrappable #goblins #hoot #scheme #guile

gccrs: An alternative compiler for Rust relying on GNU Compiler Collection (GCC)

« Maybe more importantly however, there is a number of things that gccrs is NOT for. The project has multiple explicit non-goals, which we value just as highly as our goals. »

Missing the goal of a better #bootstrappable Rust, no?

Currently more or less a long chain…

https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2018/bootstrapping-rust

https://blog.rust-lang.org/2024/11/07/gccrs-an-alternative-compiler-for-rust.html

Open Source Social Business?

https://slrpnk.net/post/13128981