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So to use LLVM, all I needed to do was to take my AST and convert it into LLVM IR. I did it using Inkwell the LLVM API in Rust. It is a wrapper around the C API that LLVM has built, and on top of that provides the memory safety guaranteed by Rust. Oh, and this is what LLVM IR looks like in text format (Don't try to understand it, feel it):
So I used the Clap crate (aka package) to build the CLI and I think it turned out all right.
What got me into lisps and writing Lisp was (suprisingly) the Emacs text editor (or Emacs OS for the hardcore users). What was I doing going anywhere even remotely near Emacs? I don't know, I'll tell you some other day. You see, writing Emacs Lisp is the recommended way of configuring Emacs. Even though I didn't write a lot of Emacs Lisp, a few of the keywords I saw there didn't feel very natural to me (especially coming from using Ruby). So one of the major goals would be to have more "natural" sounding keywords.
You can't talk about Lisp without talking about the parentheses. A big advantage in readability for other languages is that everything isn't inside a parenthesis. Square brackets usually denote an array, braces usually denote code blocks, while parenthesis are used for function calls. It leads to easier visual grepping of code, not so much in Lisp, especially as a beginner. So I need to reduce the usage of parentheses, but I cant just change all of its syntax because then it might not stay a Lisp anymore (Ship of Theseus, anyone?). I think Clojure strikes a good balance between staying a Lisp and improving visual grepping. So another goal would be to reduce the reliance on parentheses so that the code can be more readable.
You see, I really needed something to do. I had been doing a few web related projects on the side and that was something I didn't want to do any more, at least for a while. So I looked into doing something "closer to the metal", something much lower level than sending requests back and forth to a web server. So I quickly fired up Learn X by doing Y and searched for something interesting, eventually ending up on Building your own Lisp (We all have a Lisp phase, it was just my turn).