Downloads

Kernel Source Downloads

The latest source code for the kernel version 43 can be downloaded from here. It includes instructions for installation under Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL) which was the original home for Shen. This release comes with all the applications listed on this page which are kept iin the directory Lib.

Binaries

These binaries often come with source and installation instructions as well as executables. With the exception of Scheme whihc hosts executables for Windows, Linux and OS/X, all executables are compiled for Windows 11.

Several of these ports are products of the S kernel revival which uses LLMs to resurrect ports that have become defunct due to changing softare standards. Nearly all of these ports were written for pre-S kernels (the Shen S kernel series began in 2021). They are labelled as 'S series revival'.

The S-series revival is mainly aimed at ports where there is no ongoing activity.

Disclaimer: the S series revival ports carry the original attributions of copyright and licensing of their human creators. All the code is open source. However the code has been changed using an LLM and so any lack in the performance and reliability of these programs should not be attributed to the content creators. Morover the various language platforms themselves have greatly varying performance profiles. However all ports have passed the 134 tests in the Shen test suite. The original repositories are listed here.

Platform	Operating System	Comments
SBCL	Windows	This comes withe all the library applications (apart from the TCL/tk interface) preloaded. Ported by Mark Tarver, S42 kernel, based on standard installation SBCL 2.0.0.
Python	Windows	Ported by Matthieu Lagacherie and Yannick Drant, S42 kernel, S series revival.
Ruby	Windows	Ported by Greg Spurrier, S42 kernel, S series revival.
Java	Windows	Ported by Tatsuya Tsuda, S42 kernel, S series revival.
C	Windows	Ported by Tatsuya Tsuda, S42 kernel, S series revival.
Javascript	Windows	Ported by Ramil Farkshatov, S41, 42 kernel, S series revival.
Scheme	Various	Ported by Bruno Deferrari.

Applications

All applications listed here come with the kernel sources in Lib and are installed by demand.

The Shen Library

This includes the Shen Standard Library and facilities for concurrency, the interface to TCL/tk (Shen/tk) and the Shen IDE. Download it as Lib with the kernel source download.

The Logic Lab

This is currently part of Lib.

Logic, Proof and Computation Software

This is detailed in the LPC support page and is available in Lib.

THORN

A theorem-prover for first-order logic with equality. The tutorial page is here. THORN is part of Lib.

Editors

There have been several editors developed for Shen. Downloads exist for Emacs and Robert Koeniger developed a version for Sublime.

Regex Parsing

Eric Schulte developed a regex parser in the manner of Perl for parsing large files.

Legacy Work

A lot of links to legacy work on Shen, including older kernels, can be found here.

News

Shen site to be reconfigured in September 2026.

Old Shen builds are being revived in the S-series revival.

Yggdrasil project revived