vm branch now uses vm repl by default

[Andy Wingo]

Hi,

I've enabled the VM repl by default on the vm branch. Here's a brief
annotated tour:

    $ ./pre-inst-guile
    Guile Scheme interpreter 0.5 on Guile 1.9.0
    Copyright (C) 2001-2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

    Enter `,help' for help.

A very pleasant introduction, no? And totally configurable with a nice
programming interface.

    scheme@(guile-user)> 'foo
    $1 = foo

A normal repl. The `scheme' indicates the current language, and
(guile-user) is the current module. The $1 = foo is from the history
module. If you don't have this in your ~/.guile, you really really want
it:

    (use-modules (ice-9 readline) (ice-9 history))
    (activate-readline)

Anyway, moving on:

    scheme@(guile-user)> (lambda () (pk a #:bar))
    $2 = #<program b755ecf8>

Entering in expressions actually compiles and executes them. In this
case we compiled and loaded a thunk. Compiled procedures are "programs",
and print as such.

    scheme@(guile-user)> (define a '(a . pair))
    scheme@(guile-user)> ($2)

    ;;; ((a . pair) #:bar)
    $3 = #:bar

Procedures resolve toplevel bindings lazily, as in the interpreter, so
you get letrec semantics in the repl.

    scheme@(guile-user)> ,x $2

There is a wealth of meta-commands at the repl, commands that start with
`,'. This command, `,x', is an abbreviation for `,disassemble'. Its
output is this:

    Disassembly of #<program b755ecf8>:

    nargs = 0  nrest = 0  nlocs = 0  nexts = 0

The program has no arguments, no rest arguments, no local variables, and
no external (lexically-bound) variables.

    Bytecode:

       0    (late-variable-ref 0)
       2    (late-variable-ref 1)
       4    (object-ref 2)                  ;; #:bar
       6    (tail-call 2)

    Objects:

       0    #<variable b80057f0 value: #<program b8005858>>
       1    #<variable b7569af0 value: (a . pair)>
       2    #:bar

Late-variable-ref looks at a cell in the object vector. If it is a
symbol, it is resolved relative to the module that was current when the
program was made. The object cell is then replaced with the resulting
resolved variable. Here we see that objects 0 and 1 were already
resolved. Object 2 is just the constant, #:bar.

All of the ref instructions push their values on the stack. Call
instructions pop off arguments, if any, then call the program on the top
of the stack. In this case it is a tail call.

    Sources:

       8    #(1 11 #f)

Some instructions are annotated with source information. In this case,
when the instruction pointer is at 8 (right after the tail-call -- one
byte for tail-call and one for the number of arguments, 2), the original
source was at line 1 and column 11 in an unnamed port (stdin in this
case).

    scheme@(guile-user)> ,option interp #t
    scheme@(guile-user)> ,option
    trace       #f
    interp      #t

Here we tell the repl that, given the option, we prefer to interpret
rather than compile. Of course, if the current language doesn't support
compilation, we always interpret.

    scheme@(guile-user)> (lambda () (pk a #:bar))
    $4 = #<procedure #f ()>

An interpreted procedure, like in olden times.

Happy hacking!

Andy
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