Git and the Anarki Arc repository: a brief guide

The official releases of Arc are at arclanguage.org. However, a group of enthusiasts has their own repository of Arc, called Anarki. This repository has versions of the Arc files with bug fixes, documentation, and extended functionality. The repository also contains additional features, documentation, applications, and Emacs tools.

The Anarki repository is stored in a source control system called git. The repository is open for access and updates by Arc users. Accessing the repository is straightforward, and will be described below. Submitting changes to the repository is not much harder, but is beyond the scope of this document; one source of information is on arclanguage.org.

The repository is promptly updated when a new version of Arc is released. Most of the changes in the repository haven't been migrated back to the official Arc releases, so there is considerable divergence between the official Arc version and the Anarki version.

Installing git on Linux

On Linux, git is in the "git-core" package. You can install this with "sudo apt-get git-core" on Ubuntu, or "sudo yum install git-core" on Red Hat.

Installing git on Windows

On Windows, one option is Git on MSys, which can be downloaded from the msysgit site, under "Featured Downloads".

Using git to fetch Anarki

Once git is installed, fetching the repository is surprisingly easy. Run "git clone git://github.com/nex3/arc.git", which will create a directory "arc-wiki" containing a copy of the repository. To get updates from the repository, run "git pull".

Browsing Anarki without git

You can browse the repository directly by going to http://github.com/nex3/arc/tree/master. To view a file, click on the filename.

Once you've downloaded Anarki, you can see the cutting edge of Arc modifications. One of the most interesting features of the Anarki version is docstrings: "(help map)" will display documentation on the map function, for instance.

The stable Anarki branch

A "stable" Anarki branch has also been created. This repository is close to the official Arc release, but with bug fixes and minimal new features. The stable repository lacks the experimental features and rapid changes of the regular repository.

To use the stable repository, check out Anarki as described above. Then run "git branch stable origin/stable" and "git checkout stable". All the experimental files and directories will disappear, and you will be left with the stable branch. For more information, see the arclanguage forum.

The Arc-to-C compiler

An Arc to C compiler is being developed in a separate repository: git://github.com/sacado/arc2c.git, which can be accessed on the web at http://github.com/sacado/arc2c/tree/master.