Looking for beginner resources on writing a Lisp from scratch

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on /r/ProgrammingLanguages

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  • mal

    mal - Make a Lisp

    Make a Lisp is a bit closer to what I'm looking for but doesn't really "click" with me so I'd like to find something else as well.

  • BuildYourOwnLisp

    Learn C and build your own programming language in under 1000 lines of code!

    Build your own Lisp is cool but offloads the language grammar and the parsing to the author's mpc library, this is already way overkill for what I'd like to do.

  • WorkOS

    The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

  • lis.py

    Small lisp interpreter in Python

  • single_cream

    single file scheme interpreter with tail call optimization

    single cream and the projects listed in the "See also" section of its README

  • the-super-tiny-compiler

    :snowman: Possibly the smallest compiler ever

    I think this is more or less what you’re looking for https://github.com/jamiebuilds/the-super-tiny-compiler . He builds a small compiler for a lisp like syntax that only support a handful of operations. I have not gone through it myself but I think total is about 200 lines which can be just enough for the type of project you have.

  • Lisp-in-Charm

    This explanation of how to do it in Python is useful. I used it as a model for doing a Lisp in Charm, though there are differences of detail in the implementation.

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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