Lush

I tried Cygwin and qemu, but there are just too many problems with compiling. Ubuntu will compile, but with the package manager you won't have to.

Problems with Cygwin: Cannot configure lush without binutils-dev from binutils. Cannot make binutils.

Problems with Qemu Damn Small Linux embeddable: Cannot configure lush without binutils-dev. Network bugs prevent a binutils download. Very slow and other bugs.


So here's how to get lush up and running in Windows with no hassles and in 10 minutes (excluding download time)

Step 1 - Downloads
------------------
Download and install vmplayer (free virtual machine software)
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

Download and unzip Browser-Application (free Ubuntu image with Firefox)
http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/directory/browserapp.html

Step 2 - Run
------------
Run vmplayer, select Browser-Appliance.vmx

Step 3 - Install Packages
--------------------------
Menubar -> System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager (password: vmware)
Search for lush, mark lush package for installation
Search for build-essential, mark build-essential package for installation
Click Apply

That's it! vmplayer will also save any changes back to the image file.


Testing (Tested on Windows XP 64)
-------
Menubar -> Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal
> lush

? (de harmonic (n)
((-double-) n)
(let* ((z 0) (i 0))
((-double-) z i)
(while (< i n) (incr i) (incr z (/ i)))))
= harmonic

? (time (harmonic 1000000))
= 0.34

? (dhc-make "junk" harmonic)
Preprocessing and parsing harmonic ...
Generating C for harmonic ...

? (time (repeat 30 (harmonic 1000000)))
= 0.33


So the compiled C code is 30 times faster, and everything runs just about as if linux was directly ran from the same pc. With performance this fast, I may just redo my system with Ubuntu, and load vmware with Windows.