The discussion centers on Clj.rs, a Clojure dialect implemented in Rust, with the author attributing its creation to AI-assisted 'vibe coding' due to personal constraints. Participants debate whether this LLM-generated approach yields a viable tool or merely unstable code, while also contrasting it with existing alternatives like Jank and Babashka.
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Carp
Haskell2016–2026
carp-lang / Carp
Carp
A statically typed lisp, without a GC, for real-time applications.
84Distinct people
105Mentions
2Explicit recommenders
6.1KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
A statically typed lisp, without a GC, for real-time applications.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
I love Clojure, but I do miss static types. I'm hoping Carp[0] (mentioned in the article) comes into its own. It seems like it could become my ideal language. The other problem…
christophilus used a recommendation phrase. 2 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- nakkaya/ferret · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year105 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2016-03-18 06:15:17 UTC to 2026-10-07 02:57:32 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 11 | 4 | 7 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 2 | 5 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 13 | 1 | 12 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 8 | 1 | 7 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 17 | 3 | 14 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 13 | 1 | 12 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 12 | 3 | 9 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 1 | 8 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
What Hacker News says
105 sourcesSOso-cal-schemer·Oct 7, 2026
I was hoping for a discussion to stem out of this..
I wonder what the status of Carp is -- a Lisp with a borrow checker:
https://github.com/carp-lang/Carp
And I'm not a React developer, but from what I know of it, it struck me as something a Lisp hacker would come up with.
In RacketCon Is SaturdayAnother really interesting Lisp that I recently came across:
https://github.com/carp-lang/Carp
In Clojure Hosted on GoAnd if you like Lisp and ownership, there's also Carp [1]. It doesn't mimic Rust's features and naming schemes though.
Carp is about 10 years old and has some cool demo's (like SDL for gamedev).
> The key features of Carp are the following:
> * Automatic and deterministic memory management (no garbage collector or VM)
> * Inferred static types for great speed and reliability
> * Ownership tracking enables a functional programming style while still using mutation of cache-friendly data structures under the hood
> * No hidden performance penalties – allocation and copying are explicit
> * Straightforward integration with existing C code
> * Lisp macros, compile time scripting and a helpful REPL
[1]: https://github.com/carp-lang/Carp
In Show HN: Rust but Lisphttps://github.com/carp-lang/Carp might be of interest. It's a statically typed lisp.
In Why I still reach for Lisp and Scheme instead of HaskellRich has many great ideas and he founded Clojure. I respect him deeply. On typing, however, we do not agree entirely.
For a practical example of a Clojure-like language with a completely static type system (with affine typing), see Carp. https://github.com/carp-lang/Carp
I don't see why there can't be a Carp mode in jank, with bridges in place to connect the Clojurey world from the Carpy world. This would allow jank users to develop interactively to start with, figure out their shapes, use the REPL, etc. Then, if they want, they can lock down some parts of the code for both performance and correctness gains.
In The Jank programming languageWhen it said it could be used anywhere C++ could be used, I was expecting something closer to Carp[0] or PreScheme[1] which have no runtime garbage collector. This lets you use these in contexts where runtime GC is not acceptable, like real time processing, or constrained hardware like microcontrollers.
[0] https://github.com/carp-lang/Carp
[1] https://prescheme.org
In Nothing Janky About This New Programming LanguageAs an ex-clojure dev that picked up Rust, I have no interest in this as long as it doesn't have ownership.
Once you used lexical scoping, you're not going back to dynamic scope either, the same goes for the ability to reason about "where an object currently is" lexicographically.
I think Carp (https://github.com/carp-lang/Carp) is a much more interesting contender for a native clojure, simply because it has lexical ownership.
In From C++ to Clojure: Jank language promises best of bothMost of those aren't really ready for production use except maybe Typed Racket, which I consider to be too "weak" and took a route with annotations that I'm not a fan of. Coalton is very interesting, I've been following it for a bit. Carp [0] is another one that I've been following.
[0]: https://github.com/carp-lang/Carp
In Crunch – a Scheme compiler with a minimal runtimeObligatory reference to Carp[1], the lisp that uses borrow checking; the "rust" of lisps.
1: https://github.com/carp-lang/Carp
In Lisp implemented in Rust macrosWithout a new maintainer and perhaps a group of dedicated supporters, Carp may as well be considered abandoned. The existing head maintainer and major contributor has moved on to other things.
https://github.com/carp-lang/Carp/issues/1460#issuecomment-2...
In The Pre-Scheme Restorationhttps://github.com/carp-lang/Carp is a recent attempt to create a similar language, but with a Rust-inspired borrow checker. though it looks like prescheme would end up being less dependent on C ultimately, this is another option in the space.
In The Pre-Scheme RestorationWhile I'm a huge fan of immutable persistent datastructures, I don't think that they are a neccesity.
And linked lists with reference counting are really easy to do, and don't have any leaks if you don't allow cons cell abuse. (which would mess with immutablity anyways)
You could also do linear types like carp [0], or you could just do manual memory management.
I feel like most people will call something with macros and s-expressions, a reasonable, if brutalist, lisp.
0: https://github.com/carp-lang/Carp
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