MINIEXP/MINILISP

----------------

Files <miniexp.h> and <miniexp.cpp> in directory

<djvulibre-3.5/libdjvu/miniexp.h> implement the basic data

structure of a lisp interpreter: s-expressions.

S-expressions can be viewed as a simple and powerful

alternative to XML.  They are used in DjVu to handle

annotations.  Both the decoding api <ddjvuapi.h> and program

<djvused> use s-expressions to describe the hidden text

information and the navigation information (bookmarks.)

Comments in file <miniexp.h> describe which s-expressions

are supported, how they are represented in text files, and

which functions are available to handle them.

During the development of <miniexp.h> and <miniexp.cpp> it

appeared that the best way to test s-expressions was to make

the last step and program a complete lisp interpreter.  

This also makes a perfect example of using <miniexp.h>.

The core interpreter is in file <minilisp.cpp>.

Startup definitions are in file <minilisp.in>.

Just type <make> to compile it.

Exercise: speed up the interpreter by

accelerating the function lookup().

- Leon Bottou, 

  September 2005