=pod
=head1 Use the source
X<Parrot;source code>
The second step to participating in Parrot development is to get a
copy of the source code. If you just want to try it out--experiment
with a few features and see how it feels--the best option is to
download the most recent point release for your system. Point releases
are usually packaged up for easy download and install for various
platforms, including Windows, Debian, and Redhat. Point releases are
available from U<http://www.parrot.org/download>.
If you plan to get involved in development, you'll want to check out
the source from the git repository directly. Anyone can get
anonymous access to read the files and download a working copy to
explore and test. For commit access, volunteers need a
U<https://trac.parrot.org> username, and need to be approved by a
Metacommitter. To download the most recent version from git, type this
command into your terminal N<This is for Linux users, on Mac or
Windows systems, follow the instructions from your git client>:
git clone http://github.com/parrot/parrot
There's also a web interface for viewing files in the repository at
the same link.
The repository is large and complex, so it's worth taking a little bit
of time to explore. The code changes constantly, but most files and
functions have informative descriptions to help keep track of things.
The most important top-level directory is F<docs/>. The content isn't
always up to date, but it is a good place to start. F<parrot.pod>
provides a quick overview of what's in each documentation file. If you're
a capable writer and know a thing or two about how Parrot works, the
documentation is a great place to start contributing. This book that
you're reading right now was created in F<docs/book/> by ordinary
contributors. Most other documentation files found here are parsed and
converted to HTML for display at U<http://www.parrot.org>.
There are a number of existing language implementations for Parrot:
Perl 6, Python ("Pynie"), Ruby ("Cardinal"), PHP ("Pipp"), Lisp, Lua,
Tcl ("partcl"), WMLScript, Forth, Scheme, Befunge, BASIC, and many
others. These language compilers are in various stages of partial
completion. The page L<https://trac.parrot.org/parrot/wiki/Languages>
provides meta information on these languages and where to find them.
If you have a language you're particularly interested to see implemented
on Parrot, you can see how far along the effort is, or you can start the
work to implement it yourself. We'll talk more about creating new
compilers in Chapter 10: High-Level Languages, if you're interested.
The F<lib/> directory contains Perl 5 classes currently used in
developing, building, and testing Parrot. The F<src/pmc/> directory
contains the C source code for Parrot classes (PMCs, which you'll read
more about in Chapter 11).
Most Parrot development happens in F<src/> for the C source code, and
F<include/parrot/> for the C development header files.
Libraries for use by programs running on Parrot are found in F<runtime/>.
The F<examples/> directory contains some example Parrot PIR and Assembly
code, as well as benchmarks. More discussions about these topics will be
found in Chapter 3, Chapter 5, and Chapter 7
respectively.
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