Shen is a functional programming language with a number of interesting features. These include:

• Optional static type checking
• Pattern matching
• Integrated Prolog system
• Parsing libraries

Shen can be ported without too much effort to other language systems. Many of the community ports are available from the Shen download page. A commercial port of Shen is available as part of Shen Professional.

This port runs on top of Wasp Lisp, a small Lisp system with concurrency and distributed features. Wasp Lisp is not actively developed but the author Scott Dunlop monitors the github repository and processes pull requests. Shen requires features that Wasp Lisp doesn't currently support, like real numbers. I maintain a fork on github that implements the features that Shen needs.

The reason for this port is that I use Wasp Lisp in some projects and wanted to try Shen in some of the areas where I use Wasp and MOSREF. The port is incomplete but is at a state where it works well enough to publish and get feedback.

This port is heavily based on the Shen Scheme implementation. Much of the code is ported from Scheme to Wasp Lisp and the structure is kept the same. The license for code I wrote is the same as the Shen Scheme License, BSD3-Clause.

The following compiled binaries are available:

shen_static.bz2. This is a static 64-bit linux binary with no dependancies. It should run on any 64-bit Linux system. Decompress with:

$ bunzip2 shen_static.bz2
$ chmod +x shen_static
$ ./shen_static

shen.zip. The zip file contains a Windows 64-bit binary, shen.exe. It should run on any modern 64-bit Windows system.

First step, build the fork of Wasp Lisp needed to run:

$ git clone --branch shen https://github.com/doublec/WaspVM wasp-shen
$ cd wasp-shen
$ make install

Follow the prompts for the location to install the wasp lisp binaries and add that bin directory of that location to your path:

$ export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/install/bin

Shen is provided in source code format from the Shen Sources github repository. The code is written in Shen. It needs a working Shen system to compile that code to KLambda, a small Lisp subset that Shen uses as a virtual machine. This KLamda code can be found in the kl directory in this repository. These KLambda files are compiled to Wasp Lisp and stored as compiled code in the compiled directory. The repository includes a recent version of these files. To generate, or re-generate, run the following commands:

$ rlwrap wasp
>> (import "driver")
>> (compile-all)
Compiling toplevel.kl
Compiling core.kl
Compiling sys.kl
Compiling sequent.kl
Compiling yacc.kl
Compiling reader.kl
Compiling prolog.kl
Compiling track.kl
Compiling load.kl
Compiling writer.kl
Compiling macros.kl
Compiling declarations.kl
Compiling types.kl
Compiling t-star.kl

This will create files with the Wasp Lisp code in the compiled/*.ms files, and the compiled bytecode in compiled/*.mo files.

Creating a Shen executable can be done with:

$ waspc -exe shen shen.ms
$ chmod +x shen
$ rlwrap ./shen
Shen, copyright (C) 2010-2015 Mark Tarver
www.shenlanguage.org, Shen 19.3.1
running under Wasp Lisp, implementation: WaspVM
port 0.1 ported by Chris Double


(0-) 

Note that it takes a while to startup as it runs through the Shen and KLambda initialization.

Shen can be run and debugged from the Wasp REPL. To load the compiled code and run Shen:

$ rlwrap wasp
>> (import "driver")
>> (load-all)
>> (kl:shen.shen)
Shen, copyright (C) 2010-2015 Mark Tarver
www.shenlanguage.org, Shen 19.3.1
running under Wasp Lisp, implementation: WaspVM
port 0.1 ported by Chris Double


(0-)

When developing on the compiler it's useful to use eval-all instead of load-all. This will load the KLambda files, compile them to Scheme and eval them:

>> (eval-all)
>> (kl:shen.shen)
...

A single input line of Shen can be entered and run, returning to the Wasp REPL with:

>> (kl:shen.read-evaluate-print) 
(+ 1 2)
3:: 3

KLambda functions can be called from Wasp by prefixing them with kl:. For example:

>> (kl:shen.read-evaluate-print)
(define factorial
  1 -> 1
  X -> (* X (factorial (- X 1))))
factorial:: factorial
>> (kl:factorial 10)
:: 3628800

Shen allows introspecting compiled Shen functions and examining the KLambda code. From the Wasp REPL this is useful for viewing the KLambda and comparing with the generated Wasp Lisp:

>> (kl:ps 'factorial)
:: (defun factorial (V1172) (cond (...) (...)))
>> (pretty (kl:ps 'factorial))
(defun factorial (V1172 ) (cond ((= 1 V1172 ) 1 ) (#t (* V1172 (factorial (- V1172 1 ) ) ) ) ) ) :: null
>> (pretty (kl->wasp (kl:ps 'factorial)))
(begin (register-function-arity (quote factorial ) 1 )
       (define (kl:factorial V1172)
         (cond
           ((kl:= 1 V1172) 1)
           (#t (* V1172 (kl:factorial (- V1172 1))))))
       (quote factorial ) ) :: null

Wasp binaries are a small Wasp VM stub plus the compiled Lisp code appended to it. This makes building for other platforms easy as long as you have the stub for that platform.

Wasp can be built for Android and static binaries via musl are possible.

I've made the following stubs available for building binaries for other systems:

• Musl 64-bit Linux static stub
• 64-bit Linux stub
• 64-bit Windows stub

Decompress them and copy into the lib/waspvm-stubs directory where Wasp Lisp was installed. Shen can then be built on your platform for 64 bit linux, 64 bit Linux static binaries or 64 bit Windows with:

$ waspc -exe shen -platform linux-x86_64 shen.ms
$ waspc -exe shen_static -platform static-linux-x86_64 shen.ms
$ waspc -exe shen.exe -platform win-x86_64 shen.ms

This is a very early version. I've only just got it working. The Shen tests pass with the exception of the Proof Assistant test which hangs when loading.

The port is quite slow - about half the speed of the Shen C interpreter and significantly slower than Shen Scheme and Shen on SBCL. I've done some work on optimizing tail calls in the fork of the Wasp VM for Shen but there's much more work on the entire port that could improve things.

I'd like to wrap some of the Wasp concurrency code and see how well Shen works in areas I use Wasp for.

Some places to go to learn Shen:

• The Shen OS Kernel Manual has a good overview of what the open source version of Shen can do.
• Shen System Functions
• Kicking the tires of Shen Prolog
• Shen, A Sufficiently Advanced Lisp
• Shen Trick Shots
• The Book of Shen

• Shen Scheme
• Shen Elisp
• Shen Ruby
• Shen Haskell
• Shen C

• Shen, Copyright © 2010-2015 Mark Tarver - License.
• Portions of the code adapted from shen-scheme, Copyright © 2012-2015 Bruno Deferrari under BSD 3-Clause License.
• shen-wasp, Coyright © 2017 Chris Double under BSD 3-Clause License.