* Added README describing the directory contents and how to run

benchmarks under Ikarus.

benchmarks/README

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+This directory contains the Gambit benchmarks and benchmarking
+infrastructure, written by Marc Feeley.  Will Clinger has hacked
+it up to run benchmarks on the machines used by the Larceny
+project, and has added several benchmarks beyond those
+distributed with Gambit.  Abdulaziz Ghuloum converted them to
+R6RS libraries and added an ikarus-specific bench.ss for running
+the benchmarks under ikarus.
+
+Files and directories:
+
+  * bench.ss: a script for running a benchmark
+  * rnrs-benchmarks.ss: a library specifing the number of
+    iterations that every benchmark should be run and some
+    procedures (like run-benchmark) that the various benchmarks
+    use.
+  * rnrs-benchmarks/*: the actual benchmark libraries.
+  * rn100, bib, parsing-data.ss: used by some benchmarks.
+
+To run a benchmark, type:
+
+  $ ikarus --r6rs-script bench.ss <benchmark-name>
+
+Example:
+
+  $ ikarus --r6rs-script bench.ss nucleic
+  running stats for compile-nucleic:
+      7 collections
+      262 ms elapsed cpu time, including 84 ms collecting
+      262 ms elapsed real time, including 84 ms collecting
+      30095456 bytes allocated
+  running stats for nucleic:
+      154 collections
+      840 ms elapsed cpu time, including 77 ms collecting
+      842 ms elapsed real time, including 78 ms collecting
+      640581192 bytes allocated
+
+The text that Ikarus's "time" macro and "time-it" procedure
+output is modeled after Chez Scheme's in order to facilitate
+interoperability with tools that parse benchmark data.
+
+Aziz,,,