"General-Purpose Squirrel" project

This branch of a repository (or tarball is you got such) implements Squirrel
core specific changes for "Squirrel as General-Purpose Language" RFC:
http://forum.squirrel-lang.org/mainsite/forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=3116

Changes to the core are expected to be concise, to faciliate future merging
with upstream (no too big refactors), and stay compatible with original
Squirrel. Of course, changes may introduce new features which, if being
used, no longer will be compatible with original interpreter (fixing
warts is the whole purpose of this branch in the first place). Besides
concise, changes are also should be few, again, to facilitate merging
with upstream (or submission to upstream, assuming it is interested). If
something can be NOT changed, it rather be not. Anything which can go
to extension module, should rather go there.

Big part of "General-Purpose Squirrel" project is module library. Actually,
if you're interested in the project, you should rather checkout
squirrel-modules repository - it includes this branch as a git submodule
and will build you an interpreter with module imported capabilities
(which are not available in this branch proper - see above: anything not
belonging to the core, should be an extension). Feel free to proceed to
https://github.com/pfalcon/squirrel-modules

List of changes done in this branch:

1. Usage of "<-" operator is optional. Instead, you can use "=" operator
as in most other languages. All existing Squirrel code will continue to
work. If you want behavior of "=" as in original Squirrel, use ":=". To sum
up: if you're a novice, or never liked "<-", just use "=". If you liked
"<-", then don't use "=", use "<-" and ":=" instead.
RFC and discussion:
http://forum.squirrel-lang.org/mainsite/forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=3113
Reference: Python, many other languages.

2. readblob() fixed to work with streams, not just files (can use
with stdin for example).

3. "stream" base class got readline() method for reading next textual
line. It is implemented for file objects, currently not implemented
for blobs. Reference: Python.

4. "stream" base class got read(size) and write(str) methods. Reference:
Python.

5. blob.tostring() method added for consistency and ease of use.

6. Treat "", [], {} as false values in boolean context (like Python).
This allows for simpler checks in container processing algorithms.

7. If runtime error happened in the script, interpreter exits with
return code 253 (was 0, i.e. success, previously).

8. Interactive interpreter prints intro text with helpful hints at start.

9. Improve build system: more easy to use makefile, allow to build in
arbitrary static modules (using override makefile), helper script to
assess interpreter binary size when built with different options.

10. In vargv[] as passed to top-level script function, vargv[0] is now
name of the script itself. Reference: Unix shell conventions.


Original README content follows:
=================================================================

The programming language SQUIRREL 3.0 stable

--------------------------------------------------
The project has been compiled and run on Windows(x86 and x64) and
Linux(x86 and x64) and Solaris(x86 and x64).

Has been tested with the following compilers:
	MS Visual C++ 6.0,7.0,7.1,8.0,9.0,10.0 (32 and 64bits)
	MinGW gcc 3.2 (mingw special 20020817-1)
	Cygnus gcc 3.2
	Linux gcc 3.2.3
	Linux gcc 4.0.0 (x86 & 64bits)
	Solaris gcc 4.0.0 (x86 & 64bits)
	

Feedback and suggestions are appreciated 
project page - http://www.squirrel-lang.org
community forums - http://forum.squirrel-lang.org
wiki - http://wiki.squirrel-lang.org
author - [email protected]

END OF README