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Theme fund: NGI Zero Core
Start: 2024-12
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GNU Mes interpreter speedup effort

Increase performance of full source bootstrap

GNU Mes is a Scheme interpreter (mes), C compiler (mescc) and a minimal C standard library (meslibc) for bootstrapping the GNU System. The Scheme interpreter is written in a few thousands lines of simple C, and the C compiler is written in Scheme, and these are mutually-hosted. GNU Mes has a key role in the Full Source Bootstrap chain as it is the first fully featured C compiler that also ships a C standard library.

This project aims to improve the performance of GNU Mes' scheme interpreter, rewriting it as a bytecode interpreter, while keeping it as simple and readable as it is. This would enable faster execution of the Mes C Compiler (mescc) for faster build times, making the bootstrapping chain more accessible, specially in small single-board computers where memory access is more expensive. This speedup could also lead to a reduction of steps in the bootstrapping chain, making it simpler and easier to maintain.

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This project was funded through the NGI0 Core Fund, a fund established by NLnet with financial support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet programme, under the aegis of DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement No 101092990.

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