coalton
cl-cookbook
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coalton | cl-cookbook | |
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84 | 50 | |
966 | 887 | |
4.6% | 1.6% | |
8.4 | 8.8 | |
6 days ago | 8 days ago | |
Common Lisp | JavaScript | |
MIT License | GNU General Public License v3.0 or later |
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.
coalton
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How to Write a (Lisp) Interpreter (In Python)
It's still… not the same. In CL (and specially with SBCL), we get compile time (type) errors and warnings at the blink of an eye, when we compile a single function with a keystroke (typically C-c C-c in Slime).
And there's also been improvement, see Coalton for a ML on top of CL. (https://github.com/coalton-lang/coalton/)
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Embracing Common Lisp in the Modern World
Common Lisp has bad marketing (even OCaml has Twitch streamers and "influencers" now), and bad support for general editors, both of which make it a non-starter for most curious people who have an afternoon to try something. But behind all that is magnificent activity for those who got over the initial potential energy barrier. Just to give some examples:
1. SBCL, the most popular open source implementation of Lisp, is seeing potentially two new garbage collectors. One of them is a parallel collector written by a university student (!!) which blows my mind.
2. SBCL has better and better support for deploying Liwp as a C-compatible shared library, using SBCL-LIBRARIAN. It makes it play nicer with other applications in C and Python.
3. Coalton is another exciting development that allows a Haskell type system and "Lisp-1" functional programming in Common Lisp. That means type classes (or traits), something Lisp hasn't really had a proper notion of, and full type inference. Persistent sequences based off of RRB-trees were recently merged, and interestingly, they're implemented purely in Coalton [1]. That means Clojure-like seqs.
It's interesting to see users of Lisp generating the above ideas and libraries, not a special in-group of committees, "official" developers, etc.
[1] https://github.com/coalton-lang/coalton/blob/main/library/se...
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Steel – An embedded scheme interpreter in Rust
Use an editor that auto-inserts parens and that indents the code correctly. Now nothing bad can happen. And the parens are used to edit code structurally.
re typing: Coalton brings Haskell-like typing on top of CL. https://github.com/coalton-lang/coalton/ Other lisps are typed: typed racket, Carp… and btw, SBCL's compiler brings some welcome type warnings and errors (unlike Python, for instance).
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Show HN: Collaborative Lisp Coding on Discord
If you like type safety, this project would be perfect for using https://coalton-lang.github.io/ so your REPL supported Common Lisp out of the gate.
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A fully-regulated, API-driven bank, with Clojure
Agree that you can use types to express and prove logical properties via compiler; it can be a fun way to solve a problem though too much of it tends to frustrate coworkers. It's also not exactly "low cost"; here's an old quip I have in my quotes file:
"With Scala you feel smart having just got something to work in a beautiful way but when you look around the room to tell your clojure colleague how clever you are, you notice he left 3 hours ago and there is a post-it saying use a Map." --Daniel Worthington-Bodart
> On the contrary, they're still the most effective technique we've found for improving program correctness at low cost.
This is not borne out by research, such as there is any of any quality: https://danluu.com/empirical-pl/ The best intervention to improve correctness, if not already being done, is code review: https://twitter.com/hillelogram/status/1120495752969641986 This doesn't necessarily mean dynamic types are better, just that if static types are better, they aren't tremendously so to obviously show in studies, unlike code review benefit studies.
My own bias is in favor of dynamic types, though I think the way Common Lisp does it is a lot better than Python (plus Lisp is flexible enough in other ways to let static type enthusiasts have their cake and eat it too https://github.com/coalton-lang/coalton), and Python better than PHP, and PHP better than JS. Just like not all static type systems are C, not all dynamic type systems are JS. Untyped langs like assembly or Forth are interesting but I don't have enough experience.
I don't find the argument that valuable though, since I think just focusing on dynamic vs static is one of the least interesting division points when comparing languages or practices, and if we're trading experience takes I think Clojure's immutable-by-default prevents more bugs than any statically typed language that is mutable by default. It's not exactly a low cost intervention though, and when you really need to optimize you'll be encouraged by the profiler to replace some things with Java native arrays and so on. I don't think changing to static types would make a quality difference (especially when things like spec exist to get many of the same or more benefits) and would also not be a low cost intervention.
Last quip to reflect on. "What's true of every bug found in the field? ... It passed the type checker. ... It passed all the tests. Okay. So now what do you do? Right? I think we're in this world I'd like to call guardrail programming. Right? It's really sad. We're like: I can make change because I have tests. Who does that? Who drives their car around banging against the guardrail saying, "Whoa! I'm glad I've got these guardrails because I'd never make it to the show on time."" --Rich Hickey (https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy/)
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Compiler Development: Rust or OCaml?
> Lisps can be very flexible, but they usually lack static type safety, opening a wide and horrible door to run-time errors.
People should do basic research before writing something silly like this. Qualifying your statement with 'usually' is just a chicken sh*t approach. Common Lisp and Racket have optional strong typing, leaving the responsibility and choice to the developer. Common Lisp is great for implementing compilers. You also have thing like Typed Racket and Coalton. The latter is comletely statically typed ala MLTON
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Why Lisp?
Coalton doesn't actually work: https://github.com/coalton-lang/coalton/issues/84?s=09
This is why it's important to always look at the issues on a repo instead of just believing what's in the README. It fails to detect type errors in some of the most basic situations
> static strong typing
Alright, here is it: https://github.com/coalton-lang/coalton/
> small efficient native binaries
The numbers are: with SBCL's core-compression, a web app with dozens on dependencies will weight ±30 to 40MB. This includes the compiler, the debugger, etc. Without core compression, we reach ±150MB.
> The actor runtime?
the actor library: https://github.com/mdbergmann/cl-gserver
> couldn't find a way to make money with it. I suspect many other programmers are in my boat.
Alright. Some do, that's life. Yes, some companies go with CL even in 2023 (https://lisp-journey.gitlab.io/blog/lisp-interview-kina/, they released https://github.com/KinaKnowledge/juno-lang lately; Feetr (finance): https://twitter.com/feetr_io/status/1587182923911991303)
https://github.com/azzamsa/awesome-lisp-companies/
> Give us an HTTP (1.x & 2.0) and WebSockets libraries
How so? We have those libraries. HTTP/2: https://github.com/zellerin/http2/
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My Thoughts on OCaml
1. There are functional dependencies and multi-parameter type classes. No GADTs (yet?) or existential types (yet?).
2. Records are being implemented but it's far from being a dealbreaker, in the sense that thousands of production lines of Coalton have been built without needing them. It's just not ergonomic to shuffle around and pattern match against record-like data. With pattern matching in function arguments, things are at least easier.
3. All Coalton functions compile to Lisp functions. There's a guide that describes what is promised about interop (https://github.com/coalton-lang/coalton/blob/main/docs/coalt...).
4. Since Coalton functions are Lisp functions, you can call (unconstrained) functions directly. However there's a lot of room for improvement. There's an open issue to make a dedicated Coalton REPL that can show types and not require COALTON to be typed.
5. Coalton is developed as an open source project to build tools at HRL Laboratories, so it does receive sponsorship. Yes, HRL is hiring. Feel free to send me an email to the address in my profile.
Coalton [1] is a dialect of ML with S-expression syntax and integrates into Common Lisp. It works, and is used "in production" by its developers, but it's still being developed into a 1.0 product.
Coalton made a lot of design decisions that resonate with this post.
- Coalton dispensed with structures, signatures, and functors. No doubt a beautiful concept, and sometimes satisfying to write, but almost always unsatisfying to use. Like the author suggests, the "interface-style" of type classes, traits, and interfaces have always felt more intuitive, and that different interfaces should require different types. Coalton uses type classes.
- Coalton has S-expression syntax. No indent rules. No precedence rules. No expression delimiters. All of the "tradition" of ML syntax is dispensed with into something that is a lot easier to write.
- It should be no surprise that with S-expressions, you get Lisp-style macros. Macros in Coalton are just Common Lisp macros. No separate pre-processors. No additional language semantics to deal with.
- Because it's built on Common Lisp, Coalton gets something few (if any?) other ML-derivatives get: Truly incremental and interactive development. You can re-compile types, functions, etc. and try them out immediately. There's no separate "interpreter mode"; just a Lisp REPL.
Coalton's language features are still settling (e.g., records are being implemented) and the standard library [2] is still evolving. However, it's been used for "serious" applications, like implementing a compiler module for quantum programs [3].
[1] https://github.com/coalton-lang/coalton
[2] https://coalton-lang.github.io/reference/
[3] https://coalton-lang.github.io/20220906-quantum-compiler/
cl-cookbook
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Gamedev in Lisp. Part 1: ECS and Metalinguistic Abstraction
> the problem with Lisp is that it's sorta bundled with Emacs
What's the problems with Alive, SLT, Slyblime, and Vlime? I mean, I use Emacs, but I was using Emacs before getting into Scheme and CL anyway.
> Every website that teaches Lisp is in ugly HTML+CSS-only style
I dunno, I feel like the Community Spec (<https://cl-community-spec.github.io/pages/index.html>) and the Cookbook (<https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/>) are fine.
> I like the philosophy of (s-exp) but modern lisps have ruined its simplicity for me by introducing additional bracket notations [like this].
Yes, that additional notation is a terrible blight on the perfection that is S-expressions, I wholeheartedly agree.
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Common Lisp: An Interactive Approach (1992) [pdf]
check out the editor section, there's more than Emacs these days: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/editor-support.ht...
- https://github.com/CodyReichert/awesome-cl for libraries
- https://www.classcentral.com/report/best-lisp-courses/#ancho...
- a recent overview of the ecosystem: https://lisp-journey.gitlab.io/blog/these-years-in-common-li... (shameless plug, on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34321090)
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A few newbie questions about lisp
Q4: the Cookbook should get you straight to the point: build a website, web scraper, DB access, reference of data structures… https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/
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How to Understand and Use Common Lisp
It's a good book!
Modern companions would be:
- the Cookbook: https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/ (check out the editors section: Atom/Pulsar, VSCode, Sublime, Jetbrains, Lem...)
- https://github.com/CodyReichert/awesome-cl to find libraries
Also:
- https://stevelosh.com/blog/2018/08/a-road-to-common-lisp/
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34321090 2022 in review
Seems like a nice book. I like that it gets into the fundamental stuff like setq, cond, let, list, cons, etc. quickly enough in the 3rd chapter. In my opinion, the sooner these concepts are introduced in a book, the better.
I have also found from my first hand experience is that a programming language is best learnt by diving straight into it and writing small software that you care about with it.
When I began learning serious computer programming two decades ago, it was pretty much necessary to buy a good book and read as much of the book as possible chapter by chapter. For example, the first programming language book that I read was K&R and I read that cover to cover. It was quite formative in my journey of computer programming. It took me a long time to start writing useful software with the knowledge but when I did begin writing software, I had a pretty thorough knowledge of C.
I have come to realise that these days, it is not uncommon for aspiring programmers to jump straight into developing a software with a programming language determined by requirements. Not everyone had the time to read a book cover to cover. In fact, I myself learnt Python by jumping straight into developing tools that I needed for myself with it.
If someone wants to similarly get started developing tools with Common Lisp these days, I would suggest https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/ . It is a great resource to look up common recipes for common tasks.
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Peter Norvig – Paradigms of AI Programming Case Studies in Common Lisp
https://leanpub.com/lovinglisp -- this one is great, and the first thing I recommend
https://lispcookbook.github.io/cl-cookbook/ -- also great and up to date
https://awesome-cl.com/ -- for anything else.
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Good short documentation for CL functions (etc.) available?
For more beginner-friendly, I suggest P. Siebels Practical Common Lisp or The CL Cookbook. Both of those should be available in Emacs info format! If authors are lurking in here :-)
- Common Lisp and Music Composition
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Debugging Lisp: fix and resume a program from any point in stack 🎥
the code snippet used for the example is here: https://github.com/LispCookbook/cl-cookbook/pull/472
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How to learn Lisp?
Lisp Cookbook is a pretty good supplement (to PCL or otherwise). Works well as a reference, and small bits make it easy to digest.
What are some alternatives?
awesome-lisp-companies - Awesome Lisp Companies
hackett - WIP implementation of a Haskell-like Lisp in Racket
paip-lisp - Lisp code for the textbook "Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming"
racket - The Racket repository
phel-lang - Phel is a functional programming language that compiles to PHP. A Lisp dialect inspired by Clojure and Janet.
rakudo - 🦋 Rakudo – Raku on MoarVM, JVM, and JS
hissp - It's Python with a Lissp.
babashka - Native, fast starting Clojure interpreter for scripting
unseemly - Macros have types!
awesome-cl - A curated list of awesome Common Lisp frameworks, libraries and other shiny stuff.
woo - A fast non-blocking HTTP server on top of libev