Scheme from Scratch - Bootstrap v0.20 - I/O

The last major missing piece of the puzzle for a bootstrap interpreter is the ability to work with files. Scheme has several input and output primitive procedures and I’m implementing the ones I think will be useful. It is a slightly larger amount to implement than some days have been but hopefully quite straightforward for anyone who has come this far.

input:

• load
• read
• read-char
• peek-char
• input-port?
• open-input-file
• close-input-file
• eof-object?

output:

• write
• write-char
• output-port?
• open-output-file
• close-output-file
• error

A sample REPL session:

$ ./scheme
Welcome to Bootstrap Scheme. Use ctrl-c to exit.
> (define out (open-output-port "asdf.txt"))
ok
> (write-char #\c out)
ok
> (close-output-port out)
ok
> (load "program.scm")
program-loaded
> (error "bad move")
"bad move"
exiting

Some of these functions required refactoring in other areas of the interpreter. I refactored the C read function to handle the end of a source file properly. I refactored the C write function to take a stream parameter so that the Scheme write could write to any port. I’ll backport these changes to previous versions eventually.

I’m not doing any of the the current-input-port, call-with-input-port, and with-input-from-file business. If a port is not specified as an optional parameter to read, write-char, etc then C’s stdin and stdout are used.

I added the error output form which writes all of its arguments and then exits. This form is not required by R5RS, for example, but is useful.

There is still a little bit to do but we are oh so close.

There is a v0.20 branch on github for this version.

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