Abstract

Gont is a programming language, that consists of largely imperative composition of C-like lexical layer, control structures and speed with ML's typesystem, functions as first class citizens, and safety. Plus possibly few more things, like objects.

Online documentation

• Gont for C programmers manual
• Gont hacker guide

LaTeX sources for documentation are included in CVS snapshots. Additionally, prereleases contain generated HTML and PDF.

Downloads

• Main ftp directory
• Gont pre17 release
• Latest Gont CVS snapshot
• Ksi pre46 release

FAQ

Q: What's Ksi?

A: Ksi is intermediate language that Gont compiler outputs. Ksi looks like Lisp, but is rather close to C in spirit. Ksi is compiled by GCC front end.

Q: What do I need to run Gont compiler?

A: First of all, you need an operating system and platform, supported by GCC, Boehm GC and OCaml. At the very moment Gont compiler is known to work under x86-linux, sparc32-linux and alpha-linux (I had problems using gcc 3.0.3 on alpha, though, try using 3.1 snapshot). If you managed to run it under some different OS/arch, please tell us. Following software packages are needed to compile Gont:

• GCC, version 3.0.1 or later (3.0.3 is recommended, you can also use 3.1 development snapshot). You need GCC sources, in order to compile Ksi. Ksi pre46 is required by current version of Gont.
• GNU Make (no special version requirements, I guess :)
• OCaml, version 3.02 or later (3.01 wont work, 3.04 will) [local copy]
• Boehm Conservative Garbage Collector, version 6.0 or later I guess... [local copy]
  Gont will build without Garbage Collector. However it won't free any allocated memory then ;)
• If you want to generate documentation, you will need Hevea, and teTeX (and LaTeX). If you are not going to change documentation, you probably don't need it.

All these packages (including Ksi compiler, but not Gont compiler, yet ;) are provided as RPM packages by PLD Linux Distribution.

Q: How to contact Gont developers?

A: There is mailing list available. To subscribe it, send empty email (subject also ain't important) to gont-subscribe@pld.org.pl. The list address is gont (at) pld org pl (of course, change (at) to @, and spaces to dots, this is to protect against spam). You can post to the list, even if you are not subscribed.

Q: Who wrote Gont compiler?

A: Gont compiler is being written at the University of Wroclaw, Computer Science Institute, by Michal Moskal, Kamil Skalski and Marek Langiewicz. Gont compiler is web-hosted on team.pld.org.pl, and ftp-hosted on ep09.kernel.pl.