I need someone to finish programming of a custom scripting language. The project is entirely written in C with cross system compatibility in mind and it is already pretty far developed. Means all the hard work has already been done.... lexical analyzer, syntax parser, most commands and function. The project will compile as cli, cgi and fastcgi project. All three modes do already work, so integration of cgi/fast cgi has already been done.
Your work will be to finish the project, as the previous programmer suddenly abandoned the project. This will include adding more stuff like integrating SQLite, adding MySQL connector, adding basic graphics routines, more commands and function... especially for web-scripting, enhancing stability and error handling, tweaking overal performance and extensive testing. Another important thing is integrating bytecode generation/readability and adding simple integrated ajax functionality.
The final compile is a single executable that is fast and very small. Even though, the project currently only offers to compile win 32 exe's (seperate cli, cgi, fastcgi) I also need it to be compiled under linux.. but shouldn't be to hard, as the whole project was designed with that in mind.. and early versions were already tested under linux. But to speed up development, we primarely worked on the win32 versions.
You should have good knowledge of the C language and the ability to dig yourself into a complex but not overwhleming hard project.
You need to work on your own, but give regular updates via mail. Additionally regular communication via MSN is required.
No noobs or timewasters please.. had to many in the past!
Normally I would prefer to pay at the end of the project.... as I've learned my lessons about paying programmers, but being left with unifished projects the hard way. But paying in milestones might also be an alternative.. well, we will see.
Preferably you are a single programmer... not a team.

The scripting language itself is a basic like interpreter for web-scripting. Feels a bit like doing web programming on a C64! ;)

This is definately not a weekend project and will require some time. The project should also be your main project! Means that you should focus on this project and not work on several other things.