[MIT-Scheme-devel] Re: [Bug-mit-scheme] Trouble Compiling

[Matt Birkholz]

> From: "Noah Lavine" <address@hidden>
> Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 12:49:00 -0500
> 
> [...] So, is it possible to change the build process so scheme first
> loads the .scm files in the new source tree, and then builds scheme?

No.  Notice that you could not even describe such a process without
going in circles.  What will "load the .scm files"?  Not the Scheme
you are building!

C compilers written in C have the same problem.  To build one, you
need a C compiler.  If your target system does not already have one,
you must cross-compile on a host that does.

Perhaps you mean the "version skew" problem.  If you have an old
Scheme, it often can load the new .scm files, just not ALWAYS.  When
it can't, you must deal with the changes that made your old Scheme
balk.  Everyone who has done this can hardly remember how they managed
it!  It does not appear to be a simple problem, easily automated with
some clever staging.

The only guaranteed solution is to build using the very same version.
If THAT does not work, we have a genuine bug.  All else is just skew!

It is difficult for skew to creep up on the active developers; they
ride The Wave.  It is the newbies that must struggle to catching it --
even those who have no whacky "preference" for older, conveniently-
packaged binaries.