Re: wip-full-source-bootstrap: from a 357-byte `hex0' to 'hello'

[Timothy Sample]

Hi janneke,

Jan Nieuwenhuizen <janneke@gnu.org> writes:

> I have reset Guix' wip-full-source-bootstrap branch with a first working
> implementation of the, well, "Full Source Bootstrap" for x86-linux (and
> x86_64-linux).  This bootstrap is rooted in the 357-byte hex0-seed from
> the Stage0 project (https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/stage0).

The dream is alive!  Congratulations on this big leap forward!

> When you look at the bottom of the graph (see attached), you will notice
> "%bootstrap-guile": the driver that we use for the Guix build and also
> for "bootar", "gash", and "gash-utils".  This "%bootstrap-guile" is not
> used as a seed in anything that is built, "%bootstrap-guile", "bootar",
> "gash", and "gash-utils" could be replaced with any other driver.

I never mentioned it, but a few months ago I took a little look at
porting Gash & friends to Mes.  The big issue that I ran into is that
Mes doesn’t really have a module system.  My plan was to build up Mes
modules and strip down Gash requirements until they met in the middle.
Sometime (probably not worth derailing this thread right now) we should
discuss what needs to be done for Mes modules.  (It looked like
something I could do with a little guidance on the design.)

> XXX TODO:
>    * wip-full-source-bootstrap
>      [...]
>    * wip-arm-bootstrap
>      - finish; currently stuck on gawk-mesboot0
>      [...]

It looks like you’ve made a lot of progress on this already (judging by
the rest of this thread).  However, if it helps, the current Gash-Utils
awk could _probably_ be used to skip most (all?) of the old versions of
Gawk.

Sorry I can’t be more helpful ATM.  I appreciate the work you do to keep
this project rolling!


-- Tim