One year or so ago, I contacted this list about running Gambit on Linux (I compiled the programs on Zorin/Ubuntu, and tried to run them on a choice of Linux hosting services). My programs work perfectly well in about every Scheme compiler, except Gambit. For instance, they run on Bigloo, Racket, Larceny, Ikarus, Vicare, Chez, to name a few. The programs also run on Dorai's Scheme to Common Lisp compiler. I tried the Scheme to Common Lisp compiler with SBCL, CMUCL, CLISP, ECL, etc. However, they don't run on Gambit. Although the production code is quite complex (for instance, it includes Serrano's sqlite clone), I wrote a very simple example in order to show what the problem is:
#! ./gsi -:d- (display "Content-type: text/html") (newline) (newline) (display "<html><body>Teste:") (newline) (display "<h1>Hello</h1>") (newline) (display "</html></body>") (newline)
The error is:
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
One year ago, Marc Feeley was kind enough to try to run the above program in one of the five hosting services I use. It seems that he was not able to run it either. In any case, I followed each and every suggestion I received both from the list, and from private contacts. A few suggestions:
1 -- Compile gsi in order to get a completely static exec file. People proposed many compilation schemes, like LDFLAGS='-static', etc. None worked.
2 -- Compile in a machine with exactly the same libc of the hosting service.
3 -- Change hosting service. I tried: Hostgator, Mecca Hosting, Go Daddy, UFU, and many others.
4 -- Use a complete path for gsi.
etc. etc.
I hoped that after one year, and a couple of Gambit versions, somebody had solved the problem. However, I tested the simple program again, and it still does not work.
Since the program is working well in Bigloo, and SBCL, I suppose that I will not switch to Gambit (specially now that SBCL generates tiny stand alones, all using the same sbcl.core library). However, I am curious about the reasons for even simple internet Gambit programs not working on popular hosting services. I will be pleased if somebody who discovered what the problem is could share his knowledge.