Gisp: A Lisp that compiles to Go

https://github.com/jcla1/gisp

by jcla1 • 12 years ago

80 31 12 years ago

github.com

cryptolect• 12 years ago

Feels like this is the beginning of a trend: Clojure, Hy and now Gisp.

nickik• 12 years ago

This has always been done. Very view of these will actually get any real world use.

klibertp• 12 years ago

Traditionally C was the target language, many Schemes compile to it with great results. Writing a Lisp on top of something else has a very long tradition and certainly is not beginning just now. :)

ZenoArrow• 12 years ago

What interests me is can these Lisp implementations facilitate easier translation between languages, e.g. write in Python, Python translated to Hy, Hy translated to Gisp, Gisp translated to Go. Whilst lisp dialects do differ, I'd imagine such links would be easier than a direct Python to Go translator.

ardfard• 12 years ago

This exactly my thought too. It looks like everybody who already know Lisp will developed some sweet spots for it. My guess once you experience the Lisp kool-aid, it'll be hard to be apart with it. You'll miss it whenever you code.

yason• 12 years ago

For any programming language or platform without macros, a Lisp frontend appears.

rdc12• 12 years ago

A new law?

pjmlp4• 12 years ago

No, an old law.

"Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common Lisp."

Since the quote is from 1993, you just need to replace C and Fortran by the languages of the day.

mkesper• 12 years ago

Nisp: A Lisp that compiles to Nothing

the perfect zen...

agumonkey• 12 years ago

And if you need a Lisp that is nothing : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIL_(programming_language)

stcredzero• 12 years ago

The perfect language for my NISC architecture for hardware. (Null Instruction Set Computer) My architecture is revolutionary, in that you can shrink die sizes and increase clock frequencies without limit, or eliminate the clock entirely, with zero impact on functionality and reliability. It is also an architecture to which the Halting Problem does not apply! This is huge, because all proofs of program correctness on NISC systems can be automatically evaluated in O(1) time and space.

chalst• 12 years ago

If you are wanting a native dynamic scripting language for Go, goluago is coming along quite nicely (alpha version released at New Year):

https://github.com/akavel/goluago

I think if I wanted to implement a native Lisp interpreter/ bytecode compiler for Go, I would build on top of this project rather than starting from scratch.

JulianMorrison• 12 years ago

That looks useful, thanks.

pjmlp4• 12 years ago

For those playing with this type of code generation, you get to learn more by targeting Assembly instead.

Define a proper interface between ASTs and code generation and retarding the compiler is also not that complicated.

Or generate LLVM bitcode and use the LLVM tools to compile it to native.

Way better than relying in other compiler stacks.

Of course, it is a matter how deep one wants to get into compiler stuff.

unwind• 12 years ago

s/retarding/retargeting/? Or something else? I haven't been able to come up with an interpretation where "retarding" makes sense in that sentence, but of course I'm not a native speaker.

I guess targeting assembly is way harder, you must deal with register allocation and other scary-sounding topics.

pjmlp4• 12 years ago

s/retarding/retargeting/?

Ooops, a typo.

I guess targeting assembly is way harder, you must deal with register allocation and other scary-sounding topics.

Not necessarily, if you are ok with just getting something to run.

You can pre-define a set of generation templates for each AST node, no need for register allocation.

erikj• 12 years ago

Is there a Scheme implementation that compiles to Go?

wuschel• 12 years ago

I haven't seen that yet, could be a fun thing to have. I just found an implementation of Tinylisp in go. It would be fun to have all the funky goroutines in a schemish design..

http://www.oki-osk.jp/esc/golang/lisp.html

On another note, there is Chicken Scheme, which compiles to C and produces executable files. Nice stuff!

www.call-cc.org/‎

pjmlp4• 12 years ago

There are lots of them that compile to native code.

e12e• 12 years ago

Does look like it could use a little more documentation? Am I missing something or is the only list of supported syntax etc the (very limited) examples and the implementation itself? There's no design/goal document listing what's supported or not?

Other than that, this looks like a lot of fun :-)

jcla13• 12 years ago

Indeed it was a lot of fun implementing it (author here), and yes it could do with some more documentation, though up to now no one besides me was really concerned about the functionality... :-0

blahbl4hblahtoo• 12 years ago

Oh my god, if someone wrote a bitcoin wallet that protected you chats from the NSA in this List that compiles to GO THIS WOULD BE THE PERFECT HN POST.

jcla13• 12 years ago

Author here, in case anyone has any questions!

sdegutis• 12 years ago

How does it actually work? Does it compile to Go's intermediate language and then use the normal Go tool chain to compile it into native code, and then execute it? Or is it just an AST interpreter?

jcla13• 12 years ago

It takes a given Gisp program and then lexes/parses it into a Gisp AST. Then it translates that Gisp AST into a Go AST [1] and then just prints out [2] the Go program that would generate that specific Go AST.

[1] http://golang.org/pkg/go/ast/ [2] http://golang.org/pkg/go/printer/

bfe• 12 years ago

See also Kakapo, an effort at a lisp interpreter in Go.

https://github.com/bytbox/kakapo

Gisp: A Lisp that compiles to Go

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