ccl

> The ability to evaluate code interactively without recompilation SBCL and other implementations compile code to machine code then execute it. That is to say, when a form is submitted to the REPL, the form is not interpreted, but first compiled then executed. The reason execution finishes quickly is because compilation finishes quickly. There are some implementations, like CCL, with a special interpreter mode exclusively for REPL-usage.[1] However, at least SBCL and ECL will compile code, not interpret. [1] https://github.com/Clozure/ccl/blob/v1.13/level-1/l1-readloo...

> I assume this was some toy compiler I dont know the definition of "toy compiler", but compare the following (x86 backend vs arm64 backend) https://github.com/Clozure/ccl/blob/d960a0e/compiler/X86/x86... https://github.com/Clozure/ccl/blob/d960a0e/compiler/ARM64/a... I would argue the former is a lot more complex compared to the functional equivalent in arm64 The specific extension to allow e.g. minss would look something like this (def-x86-opcode minss ((:regxmm :insert-xmm-rm) (:regxmm :insert-xmm-reg)) #x0f5d #o300 #x0 #xf3) Now try doing the same for e.g. movsxd, and you will have to be careful with the ModR/M byte, due to the VEX prefix changing semantics.

Interesting. Although I think the author advocates for going a step further than CCL. My understanding is that the GC of CCL is implemented by its lisp kernel [0]. The lisp kernel is a platform specific C / ASM program which seems to provide a runtime for CCL. The author states that the GC should be written in the language itself. [0] https://github.com/Clozure/ccl/blob/master/lisp-kernel/gc-co...

If I understand the point of this, I believe Coral Common Lisp (now Clozure CL) has always been this way, if not more so. The lowest level is a Lisp program generating native machine code. [0] There’s no lower-level implementation language or even a bytecode translator. [0] https://github.com/Clozure/ccl/tree/master/level-0/ARM

There's plenty of history of s-expression formats for documentation. One example is: https://github.com/Clozure/ccl/tree/master/doc/manual But, also, there's plenty of uses of XML that are not "artcles and books". For example, Maven's pom.xml and log4j2.xml.