71 points simonpure 3 days ago 11 comments

jiehong 2 hours ago | parent

Nice, but what are the non goals?

Except maybe the compilation to native binary, this is closer to clojurescript than clojure I suppose ?

How about a comparison with Jank?

sshine 2 hours ago | parent

Cool.

I'm already a big fan of the scheme-rs crate.

I use it any time I need a dynamic scripting language.

It allows for more flexible hot-reloading of parts of a program.

I don't personally have any Clojure interop holes that need filling.

But I can imagine a future where one moves partially away from the JVM if e.g. faster starts or leaner container images are desired.

benrutter 2 hours ago | parent

I love scheme and rust but somehow did not know about scheme-rs! Looks like such a good project, thanks for the recommendation!

tux 2 hours ago | parent

Why not name it “Cloju.rs” instead? :-)

imafish 1 hour ago | parent

came here to write exactly that xD

rfgplk 1 hour ago | parent

I'm working on something similar.

My guess is, within the next 3-5 years, most ALGOL descendant languages will become obsolete, and S-exp based Lisp dialects will take over. Objectively superior.

Behold a native kernel, no inline asm or linker scripts, of any kind. The full compiler pipeline is controllable through the compiler (you can arbitrarily target, devise, or enable/disable various optimization passes, for instance you can enable LICM at will). Also has a hard 1:1 correspondence to C/C++/Rust/adding more languages soon.

   ;; GNU multiboot kernel
   (image (target x86-64) (origin 0x100000) (entry "boot32")
     (section ".multiboot" (align 4) (keep))
     (section ".bss" (align 4096) (zero))
     (stack "bootstrap" 16384) (stack "kernel" 32768)
     (assert (<= (address "kernel.end") 0x40000000) "early memory must fit the first GiB identity map"))
   
   (static header (Array u32 8)
     (declare (section ".multiboot") (used) (link-name "multiboot_header"))
     (arr (0x1badb002 0x10003 0xe4514ffb
           (link u32 (address "multiboot_header")) (link u32 (origin))
           (link u32 (+ (origin) (image-size))) (link u32 (+ (origin) (image-size)))
           (link u32 (address "boot32")))))
   (static gdt (Array u64 3) (declare (aligned 8) (link-name "boot_gdt"))
     (arr (0 0x00af9a000000ffff 0x00cf92000000ffff)))
   (static pml4 (Array u64 512) (declare (mutable) (aligned 4096) (link-name "boot_pml4")))
   (static pdpt (Array u64 512) (declare (mutable) (aligned 4096) (link-name "boot_pdpt")))
   (static pages (Array u64 512) (declare (mutable) (aligned 4096) (link-name "boot_pages")))
   
   (fn prepare-paging ()
     (declare (mode protected32) (noinline))
     (dotimes (i 512)
       (at pml4 i (->u64 0)) (at pdpt i (->u64 0))
       (at pages i (| (* (->u64 i) 0x200000) 0x83)))
     (at pml4 0 (| (link u64 (address "boot_pdpt")) 3))
     (at pdpt 0 (| (link u64 (address "boot_pages")) 3))
     (unsafe
       (x86::write-cr 'cr3 (link u64 (address "boot_pml4")))
       (x86::write-cr 'cr4 (| (x86::read-cr 'cr4) 32))
       (x86::write-msr 0xc0000080 (| (x86::read-msr 0xc0000080) 256))
       (x86::load-gdt (link VirtAddr (address "boot_gdt")) 23)))

   (fn show-greeting ()
     (unsafe
       (auto video (i->ptr (Volatile u16) 0xb8000))
       (dotimes (i 2000) (at* video i (+ 0x5725 (->u16 i))))
       (auto greeting ":d")
       (dotimes (i (size greeting))
          (auto byte (->u8 (at greeting i)))
         (at* video i (| 0x0f00 (->u16 byte)))
         (x86::out8 0xe9 byte))
       (x86::out8 0xe9 10)))

   (boot-entry boot32 (mode protected32)
     (handoff (magic eax u32) (information ebx PhysAddr))
     (with-stack "bootstrap"
       (prepare-paging)
       (unsafe
         (x86::enter-long-mode 'kernel64 8 magic information (link u64 0x123456789abcdef0)))))

   (boot-entry kernel64 (mode long64)
     (handoff (magic rdi u32) (information rsi PhysAddr) (cookie r12 u64))
     (with-stack "kernel"
       (unsafe
         (x86::write-segment 'ds 16) (x86::write-segment 'es 16) (x86::write-segment 'ss 16)
         (auto valid (and (= magic (->u32 0x2badb002)) (> (address-bits information) 0)
                          (= cookie (->u64 0x123456789abcdef0))
                          (= (& (x86::read-cr 'cr0) 0x80000001) 0x80000001)
                          (= (& (x86::read-msr 0xc0000080) 0x500) 0x500)))
         (if valid (show-greeting)
           (progn (x86::out8 0xe9 70) (x86::out8 0xe9 10))))))

neutronicus 9 minutes ago | parent

Curious why you’re so bullish on S-Expressions now of all times.

It seems like the idea of the macro, and more generally of expressing code succinctly, is the closest to obsolete in my memory?

The other half of the Lisp sales pitch (image based development, constantly inspect state, hot swap code, REPL, etc) seems like what has retained currency in the LLM age.

lightningspirit 1 hour ago | parent

I expect this to take over within the next couple of years. Great job!

pseudony 55 minutes ago | parent

Take over what, exactly? The java ecosystem version? The javascript ecosystem version ? The c++, clojure-like dialect ?

JavierFlores09 26 minutes ago | parent

Has Clojure become the new base for Lisp-like languages? What does it got going for it that people seem to want its specific flavor of lisp? Just asking since I've also seen the Clojure talk about Jank[1] recently and it has gotten me interested.

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHgApFhevrQ

neutronicus 7 minutes ago | parent

Hash table literals.

Also, living on a host language has always been part of its ethos. So if you want to be Lisp on C++ or Lisp on Rust, you’re going to be more ideologically aligned with the Clojure crowd than the Common Lisp crowd who pinch their nose and say ALGOL when you mention either.