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Minor grammar updates to the README file (#1103)
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I made the following minor changes to the README.md file.
* Changed "h" to "H" in the word, "GitHub"
* Modified the simile toward the top of the file
* Changed "Systems Programming" to "systems programming" (lowercase "s"
and lowercase "p")
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zbraiterman authored Jan 11, 2024
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Showing 1 changed file with 13 additions and 8 deletions.
21 changes: 13 additions & 8 deletions README.md
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# Gerbil Scheme

Gerbil is an opinionated, some might even say tendentious, dialect of
Scheme designed for Systems Programming. It provides a state of the
Scheme designed for systems programming. It provides a state of the
art macro and module system on top of the Gambit runtime and compiler
and an extensive standard library. One way to think of Gerbil is as
the C++ to Marc Feeley's C.
and an extensive standard library. One way to think of Gerbil is as the C++ to Marc Feeley's C.

The macro system is based on quote-syntax, and provides the full
meta-syntactic tower with a native implementation of syntax-case.
It also provides a full-blown module system, similar to PLT Scheme's
(sorry, Racket) modules. The main difference from Racket is that
(sorry, Racket's) modules. The main difference from Racket is that
Gerbil modules are single instantiation, supporting high performance
ahead of time compilation and compiled macros.

Expand All @@ -24,10 +23,12 @@ ahead of time compilation and compiled macros.
<!-- tocstop -->

# Installation
The source code for Gerbil is hosted on [Github](https://github.com/mighty-gerbils/gerbil),

The source code for Gerbil is hosted on [GitHub](https://github.com/mighty-gerbils/gerbil),
with the latest release available in [releases](https://github.com/mighty-gerbils/gerbil/releases).

**If you are on Linux** installation from source is straightforward:

```shell
$ git clone [email protected]:mighty-gerbils/gerbil.git
$ cd gerbil
Expand All @@ -44,13 +45,15 @@ configure option.
**Note** the default configuration has some dependencies you may need
to install: sqlite, zlib, and libcrypto/openssl.
You can install them in ubuntu with:

```shell
$ sudo apt install libssl-dev zlib1g-dev libsqlite3-dev
```

**Note** If you want to install the latest release (v0.18), you can also use the precompiled binary packages for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and CentOS. They are available in the [v0.18 release](https://github.com/mighty-gerbils/gerbil/releases/tag/v0.18) page.

**If you are on MacOS** you can install Gerbil using our [brew formula](https://github.com/mighty-gerbils/gerbil/blob/master/homebrew/gerbil-scheme.rb):

```shell
$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mighty-gerbils/gerbil/master/homebrew/gerbil-scheme.rb

Expand All @@ -67,6 +70,7 @@ $ brew install --HEAD --formula -vd gerbil-scheme.rb
for more detailed installation instructions see the [Guide](https://cons.io/guide/).

# Using Gerbil

The Gerbil interpreter is `gxi`, and the compiler is `gxc`.

If you want an interactive Gerbil shell just execute the interpreter
Expand All @@ -78,6 +82,7 @@ For "hello, world" see the [Guide](https://cons.io/guide/intro.html#hello-world)

The [documentation](https://cons.io) is a work in progress, but there are some resources
that should get you started:

- The [Introduction to Gerbil](https://cons.io/guide/intro.html) is an introductory guide
for seasoned Schemers.
- The [Getting Started](https://cons.io/guide/getting-started.html) page covers the very basics
Expand All @@ -101,6 +106,7 @@ as all the main language features are exercised in one way or another
within the implementation.

Depending on your inclinations, there are several starting points:

- If you are interested in general purpose programming, then you should look at
the [stdlib sources](src/std).
- If you are interested in Gerbil macrology, then the place to start is the [core prelude](src/gerbil/prelude/core.ss).
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -135,7 +141,6 @@ The implementations of srfi 115 and srfi 159 come from Chibi, as these
are the only available reference implementations. As such, they are
© Alex Shinn and distributed under a BSD-style license.


## Logo

The Gerbil Scheme logo is © 2019 Brad Christensen. The logo, its
Expand All @@ -162,15 +167,15 @@ any of its variations or derivitives in the future.
Gerbil had been vyzo's private Scheme for many years, evolved out of a
set of common macros that were used across different implementations
and eventually a full-blown PLT macro language for actor oriented
distributed programming. As such, there have been multiple backends
distributed programming. As such, there have been multiple backends
that supported the evolution of the Gerbil dialect, but vyzo elected
to base the canonical version of Gerbil on Gambit because it is the
most portable, performant and low-level Scheme kernel available.

At the prompting of some friends (they know who they are), who had
seen private versions of Gerbil, vyzo decided to release it in public
with a clean source-based bootstrap version that bootstraps on gambit
with a precompiled version of the macro system and compiler. That
with a precompiled version of the macro system and compiler. That
means that the system could be (and now is) entirely self-hosted.

Gerbil is under continuous use and development.
Expand Down

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