[Chicken-users] Bootstrapping Chicken from Darcs

[Patrick Brannan]

I read the README.darcs file but I still have a couple of questions
about compiling Chicken from a Darcs repository pull on Windows.
Mostly, I'm just trying to make sure that I understand the basics.
I've never worked with a software system built this way so I'm playing
catch up.

When I pulled the Darcs repo the only C file that I got was chicken.h.
When I get the zip file for 1.89 all of the C files are already there.
So it's apparent that some version of Chicken has been run against the
scm files to produce the c files.

If you take a look at makefile.vc -- or better yet try to run nmake /f
makefile.vc -- you will quickly discover that it needs a chicken
executable. Since it can't build a chicken exe without the chicken.c
file (and possibly a few others) we've got a chicken-and-the-egg
problem -- sorry I couldn't resist.

If you have an earlier version of Chicken this easy to overcome, just
put the old chicken.exe file in the path and away you go. My question
is this: Is there a problem with bootstrapping a new Chicken using an
old chicken.exe? How do I know what versions will work? It seems like
there are bound to be some incompatibilities if you go back far enough
in versions. Or is the system set up so that any Scheme implementation
could run the correct scm files and produce chicken.c?

If this is all documented somewhere, feel free to point me to the right spot.