Announcing the release of Descot version 1 Beta. This is a release I would like to heavily test in the real world for problems and mistakes in implementation and approach. I encourage all who are even remotely interested to contact me with their thoughts.
What is Descot? Descot is a framework for distributing metainformation about source code. It also serves as a portable, publically specific package description language that can be used programmatically to describe the interactions between Scheme libraries. It is language independent, and as a result, also dialect independent among Schemes. Currently it is implemented using R6RS and some Chez Scheme extensions. However, most users will not have to work with any of the Descot source code for distributing their libraries. Descot introduces a Schema for describing Scheme libraries using RDF in any syntax you desire. An S-expression based syntax is currently provided, and feedback on the usability of this form is greatly desired. The system also understands Turtle by default. Why use Descot? Descot allows you to share you code with others in a portable, standard manner that others can programmatically and humanly understand. Setting up your own Descot server is very easy (and will be trivial in the near future), and I am working on a Descot server that serves out its index to the Web, so that users can search and browse indexes from various repositories and locations from a single place, without forcing all programmers to use the same repositories. Also, you can use your own tools to interact with programs that have Descot descriptions around them. This means that you can generate your own module forms for the code, use your own tools to grab and retrieve the files from repositories, or even do searching. You are not tied to using any one interface. Current Status Descot is still young. I have worked to make the basic infrastructure good, but more work needs to be done to make it more user-friendly. I had hoped to release this beta at the same time that I distributed all my Scheme code with Descot files, but alas, this is not to be, yet. I am working on completely the Descot webite (<http://descot.sacrideo.us/>) and filling it with source code. However, I need people to really start looking at Descot for their work. Be on the lookout for more cool things to come surrounding Descot and its technologies. The latest snapshot of the code is available via revision control using Monotone at mtn.sacrideo.us, branch us.sacrideo.descot. Descot is written in a Literate Programming Style, and the noweb files for this release can be found at <gopher://gopher.sacrideo.us/1descot/>. Additionally, in that same directory there is a pre-tangled version which contains the rendered read-only document, as well as the loadable source code in tangled form. For those of you who just want to learn about the source code and maybe read some of the source, but who are not familiar with noweb or Literate Programming, the tangled version will be easier to approach. However, patches should be made to the noweb source, and not to the Scheme files. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy Descot! Aaron W. Hsu -- Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. -- C. S. Lewis _______________________________________________ r6rs-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.r6rs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/r6rs-discuss
