id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	resolution	keywords	cc	difficulty
1776	More scrutable bootstrapping process	Mario Domenech Goulart		"We currently have two ways to build CHICKEN:

* from release tarballs.  In that case we have the C code
  generated by CHICKEN. In this case, the only requirement to
  build CHICKEN is a supported C toolchain and GNU Make.  The C
  code in release tarballs is not really ""source"" code, as it can
  be considered inscrutable by most humans.

* from git. In this case we require a functional CHICKEN
  installation (i.e., binary format, compiled out of a release
  tarball -- see previous item) to compile Scheme code to C.

Currently the most scrutable way to build CHICKEN is using the C
code generated by CHICKEN to build CHICKEN.  But then, as
previously mentioned, we assume the C code we are compiling is
thrustworthy, which can hardly be assessed as the C code is the
output of a compiler, so very hard to follow.

This ticket is about improving this situation, so that we can build
CHICKEN from git in a way that the whole process is more scrutable.

References:

* http://issues.guix.gnu.org/22366 points out the issue reported
  in this ticket.

* https://bootstrappable.org/ has more information on the
  benefits of transparent bootstrapping processes.
"	enhancement	new	minor	someday	unknown	5.2.0				insane