Iota

> but what sub-languages are we talking about? I only see a library with helper functions and macros. That's Common Lisp, not a derivative. If your language is a DSL factory, the line between your language and DSLs naturally blurs. If https://github.com/y2q-actionman/with-c-syntax exists, does it mean that C is a DSL of Common Lisp, given a good enough standard library? If https://github.com/calyau/maxima exists, does it mean that Maxima is just Common Lisp with more maths? If https://github.com/Shen-Language/shen-cl and https://github.com/coalton-lang/coalton/ exist, does it mean that Shen and Coalton are just a fancy way of writing Common Lisp in an immutable way? If https://github.com/froggey/Iota exists and we can play sdlquake on Mezzano, does it mean that LLVM-IR is a dialect of Common Lisp? The above series of questions is not mean

Vacietis is interesting and similar to the way C worked in the Symbolics Lisp Machines (Zeta-C), but I think llvm IR -> CL is more practical these days. Iota (made to port Doom to a pure-CL OS, Mezzano, I believe) is an example of this strategy: https://github.com/froggey/Iota

There are still people explaining to me why you need a 'system programming language' like C or Rust for certain tasks. Meanwhile, I'm playing a game of Quake on Mezzano, where everything from drivers to the actual videogame is written in pure Common Lisp. In case you wonder how froggey managed to obtain a Common Lisp version of Quake, have a look at https://github.com/froggey/Iota.

Of course you need to drop to some sort of non GC language, or you would need a hardware GC. However look at Iota [0], that can compile LLVM to Common Lisp. So you can run GC and non GC languages within, kind of, Common Lisp. Or look at all the projects that compile a language to javascript, and there is no reason why the reverse could not be done. [0] https://github.com/froggey/Iota