# Copright (c) 1998 Gordon Cichon
# Distributed under the GNU GPL.

#
# $Author: gordon $
# $Date: 2005/03/16 07:36:11 $
# $Source: /srv/cvs/rna/public_html/README,v $
# $Revision: 1.2 $
#

This is verion 0.01 of RNA, a low level object support system.

It is a small database system like a LISP system, though
without a 'eval' function. Its structure has been inspired by
the RTL expressions inside the GNU compiler and by the object
system of the self programming language. It is trying to reveal
some sort common structure inside different languages expressing
networked data structures.

The first thing that annoyed me about networked data structures
is that is quite difficult to retrieve them from a file. Just
take a look at some U*x configuration files (f.e. sendmail.cf
or printcap). Everybody is writing her own small parser to read
her stuff (like me). It was my first action to create some-
thing that is as flexible and can be read in just as easily as 
the GCC RTL expressions (indeed, they are a pretty good idea).
RNA is already used for reading configuration files of some
programs that have a quite complex (non linear) configuration.

In another sense, it is something very simple and archaic.
It does not even have a garbage collector. It uses the good 
old GNU obstacks. Just to keep it simple and transparent.
Nevertheless, RNA is capable to express everything (correct 
me if I'm wrong) that can be found in HTML, VRML, LISP, etc.
It is like the biological RNA in the primeval water that 
bootstrapped itself into life. So RNA is also something that 
can be used to bootstrap into something (which I do not know yet).


Projects
========

- Clean up the documentation
- Write some configure and installation scripts
- Write a Microsoft port
- Add some more error handling

- Invent a binary file format for RNA and write file
    reading and a writing code
- Invent some simple, small-and-beatiful garbage collection
    mechanism
- Write a simple LISP interpreter on top of RNA
- Write parser for different other languages from and to RNA:
    + HTML
    + VRML
    + LISP (need some simple interpreter, see below)
    + perl (need some more complex interpreter, see below)
    + Tcl
- Write some kind of parser generator for RNA
    (f.e. to administrate U*x configuration files :-)
- Add useful functions to the inpterpreter that are found
    in perl, Tcl/Tk, emacs LISP
- Write a translator that translates all the stuff to C
- Try to read GCC RTL, rewrite the GNU compiler backend in RNA.
- Rewrite the GCC compiler frontend in RNA, i.e. write a parser
    from C, C++ to RNA