kanaka / mal, Hacker News

Description

1. Mal is a Clojure inspired Lisp interpreter

2. Mal is implemented in 79 languages (81 different implementations and 102 runtime modes)

3. Mal is a learning tool

Each implementation of mal is separated into 11 incremental, self-contained (and testable) steps that demonstrate core concepts of Lisp. The last step is capable of self-hosting (running the mal implementation of mal). See themake-a-lisp process guide.

The make-a-lisp steps are:

Each make-a-lisp step has an associated architectural diagram. That elements that are new for that step are highlighted in red. Here is the final diagram forstep A:

If you are interested in creating a mal implementation (or just interested in using mal for something), please drop by the #mal channel on freenode. In addition to themake-a-lisp process guidethere is also amal / make-a-lisp FAQwhere I attempt to answer some common questions.

Presentations

Mal was presented publicly for the first time in a lightning talk at Clojure West 2014 (unfortunately there is no video). See examples / clojurewest 2014. mal for the presentation that was given at the conference (yes, the presentation is a mal program).

At Midwest.io 2015, Joel Martin gave a presentation on Mal titled “Achievement Unlocked: A Better Path to Language Learning”.Video,Slides.

More recently Joel gave a presentation on “Make Your Own Lisp Interpreter in 10 Incremental Steps “at LambdaConf 2016:Part 1,Part 2,Part 3,Part 4,Slides.

Building / running implementations

The simplest way to run any given implementation is to use docker. Every implementation has a docker image pre-built with language dependencies installed. You can launch the REPL using a convenient target in the top level Makefile (where IMPL is the implementation directory name and stepX is the step to run):

make DOCKERIZE=1 "repl ^ IMPL ^ stepX"     # OR stepA is the default step: make DOCKERIZE=1 "repl ^ IMPL"

External Implementations

The following implementations are maintained as separate projects:

HolyC

by Alexander Bagnalla

Rust

by Tim Morgan
by vi– usingPestgrammar, not using typical Mal infrastructure (cargo-ized steps and built-in converted tests).

Other mal Projects

malc– Mal (Make A Lisp) compiler. Compiles a Mal program to LLVM assembly language, then binary.
malcc– malcc is an incremental compiler implementation for the Mal language. It uses the Tiny C Compiler as the compiler backend and has full support for the Mal language, including macros, tail-call elimination, and even run-time eval.“I Built a Lisp Compiler”post about the process.
Frock– Clojure-flavored PHP. Uses mal / php to run programs.

Implementation Details

Ada

The Ada implementation was developed with GNAT 4.9 on debian. It also compiles unchanged on windows if you have windows versions of git, GNAT and (optionally) make. There are no external dependencies (readline not implemented).

cd ada make ./stepX_YYY

(Ada.2)

The second Ada implementation was developed with GNAT 8 and links with the GNU readline library.

cd ada make ./stepX_YYY

GNU awk

The GNU awk implementation of mal has been tested with GNU awk 4.1.1.

cd gawk gawk -O -f stepX_YYY.awk

(Bash 4)

cd bash bash stepX_YYY.sh

The BASIC implementation uses a preprocessor that can generate BASIC code that is compatible with both C 64 BASIC (CBM v2) and QBasic. The C 64 mode has been tested withcbmbasic(the patched version is currently required to fix issues with line input) and the QBasic mode has been tested with (QB)

Generate C 64 code and run it using cbmbasic:

cd basic make stepX_YYY.bas STEP=stepX_YYY ./run

Generate QBasic code and load it into qb (***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************:

cd basic make MODE=qbasic stepX_YYY.bas ./qb64 stepX_YYY.bas

Thanks toSteven Syrekfor the original inspiration for this implementation.

(BBC BASIC V)

The BBC BASIC V implementation can run in the Brandy interpreter:

cd bbc-basic brandy -quit stepX_YYY.bbc

Or in ARM BBC BASIC V under RISC OS 3 or later:

* Dir bbc-basic.riscos * Run setup * Run stepX_YYY

(C)

The C implementation of mal requires the following libraries (lib and header packages): glib, libffi6, libgc, and either the libedit or GNU readline library.

cd c make ./stepX_YYY

C

The C implementation of mal requires g – 4.9 or clang – 3.5 and a readline compatible library to build. See thecpp / README.mdfor more details:

cd cpp make     # OR make CXX=clang    - 3.5 ./stepX_YYY

C #

The C # implementation of mal has been tested on Linux using the Mono C # compiler (mcs) and the Mono runtime (version 2. (******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************. 8.1). Both are required to build and run the C # implementation.

cd cs make mono ./stepX_YYY.exe

ChucK

The ChucK implementation has been tested with ChucK 1.3.5.2.

cd chuck ./run

Clojure

For the most part the Clojure implementation requires Clojure 1.5, however, to pass all tests, Clojure 1.8.0-RC4 is required.

cd clojure lein with-profile   stepX trampoline run

CoffeeScript

sudo npm install -g coffee-script cd coffee coffee ./stepX_YYY

Common Lisp

The implementation has been tested with SBCL, CCL, CMUCL, GNU CLISP, ECL and Allegro CL on Ubuntu 16. 04 and Ubuntu 12. 04, see TheREADMEfor more details. Provided you have the dependencies mentioned installed, do the following to run the implementation

cd common-lisp make ./run

Crystal

The Crystal implementation of mal has been tested with Crystal 0. 26 .1

cd crystal crystal run ./stepX_YYY.cr     # OR make # needed to run tests ./stepX_YYY

D

The D implementation of mal was tested with GDC 4.8. It requires the GNU readline library.

cd d make ./stepX_YYY

Dart

The Dart implementation has been tested with Dart 1. 20.

cd dart dart ./stepX_YYY

Emacs Lisp

The Emacs Lisp implementation of mal has been tested with Emacs 24 and 24. While there is very basic readline editing (and (CD) work, (CC) cancels the process), it is recommended to userlwrap.

cd elisp emacs -Q --batch --load stepX_YYY.el # with full readline support rlwrap emacs -Q --batch --load stepX_YYY.el

Elixir

The Elixir implementation of mal has been tested with Elixir 1.0.5.

cd elixir mix stepX_YYY # Or with readline / line editing functionality: iex -S mix stepX_YYY

Elm

The Elm implementation of mal has been tested with Elm 0. 18 .0

cd elm make stepX_YYY.js STEP=stepX_YYY ./run

Erlang

The Erlang implementation of mal requires (Erlang / OTP R)

and (Rebar) to build.

cd erlang make     # OR MAL_STEP=stepX_YYY rebar compile escriptize # build individual step ./stepX_YYY

ES6 (ECMAScript) )

The ES6 / ECMAScript 2015 implementation uses the (babel) compiler to generate ES5 compatible JavaScript. The generated code has been tested with Node 0.

cd es6 make node build / stepX_YYY.js

F #

The F # implementation of mal has been tested on Linux using the Mono F # compiler (fsharpc) and the Mono runtime (version 3. 12 1). The mono C # compiler (mcs) is also necessary to compile the readline dependency. All are required to build and run the F # implementation.

cd fsharp make mono ./stepX_YYY.exe

Factor

The Factor implementation of mal has been tested with Factor 0. 97 (factorcode.org).

cd factor FACTOR_ROOTS=. factor -run=stepX_YYY

Fantom

The Fantom implementation of mal has been tested with Fantom 1.0. 70.

cd fantom make lib / fan / stepX_YYY.pod STEP=stepX_YYY ./run

Forth

cd forth gforth stepX_YYY.fs

GNU Guile 2.1

cd guile guile -L ./ stepX_YYY.scm

GNU Smalltalk

The Smalltalk implementation of mal has been tested with GNU Smalltalk 3.2. 91.

cd gnu-smalltalk ./run

Go

The Go implementation of mal requires that go is installed on on path. The implementation has been tested with Go 1.3.1.

cd go make ./stepX_YYY

Groovy

The Groovy implementation of mal requires Groovy to run and has been tested with Groovy 1.8.6.

cd groovy make groovy ./stepX_YYY.groovy

Haskell

The Haskell implementation requires the ghc compiler version 7. 10 later and also the Haskell parsec and readline (or editline) packages.

cd haskell make ./stepX_YYY

Haxe (Neko, Python, C and JavaScript)

The Haxe implementation of mal requires Haxe version 3.2 to compile. Four different Haxe targets are supported: Neko, Python, C , and JavaScript. *********

cd haxe # Neko make all-neko neko ./stepX_YYY.n # Python make all-python python3 ./stepX_YYY.py # C    make all-cpp ./cpp/stepX_YYY # JavaScript make all-js node ./stepX_YYY.js

Hy

The Hy implementation of mal has been tested with Hy 0. .0.

cd hy ./stepX_YYY.hy

Io

The Io implementation of mal has been tested with Io version 20110905.

cd io io ./stepX_YYY.io

Java 1.7

The Java implementation of mal requires maven2 to build.

cd java mvn compile mvn -quiet exec: java -Dexec.mainClass=mal.stepX_YYY     # OR mvn -quiet exec: java -Dexec.mainClass=mal.stepX_YYY -Dexec.args="CMDLINE_ARGS"

JavaScript / Node

cd js npm update node stepX_YYY.js

Julia

The Julia implementation of mal requires Julia 0.4.

cd julia julia stepX_YYY.jl

Kotlin

The Kotlin implementation of mal has been tested with Kotlin 1.0.

cd kotlin make java -jar stepX_YYY.jar

LiveScript

The LiveScript implementation of mal has been tested with LiveScript 1.5.

cd livescript make node_modules / .bin / lsc stepX_YYY.ls

Logo

The Logo implementation of mal has been tested with UCBLogo 6.0.

cd logo logo stepX_YYY.lg

Lua

The Lua implementation of mal has been tested with Lua 5.2. The implementation requires that luarocks and the lua-rex-pcre library are installed.

cd lua make # to build and link linenoise.so ./stepX_YYY.lua

Mal

Running the mal implementation of mal involves running stepA of one of the other implementations and passing the mal step to run as a command line argument.

cd IMPL IMPL_STEPA_CMD ../mal/stepX_YYY.mal

GNU Make 3. 81

cd make make -f stepX_YYY.mk

NASM

The NASM implementation of mal is written for x 86 – 64 Linux, and has been tested with Linux 3. 16 .0-4-AMD 64 and NASM version 2. 11. 05.

cd nasm make ./stepX_YYY

Nim 0. 17 .0

The Nim implementation of mal has been tested with Nim 0. 17 .0

cd nim make   # OR nimble build ./stepX_YYY

(Object Pascal)

The Object Pascal implementation of mal has been built and tested on Linux using the Free Pascal compiler version 2.6.2 and 2.6.4.

cd objpascal make ./stepX_YYY

Objective C

The Objective C implementation of mal has been built and tested on Linux using clang / LLVM 3.6. It has also been built and tested on OS X using XCode 7.

cd objc make ./stepX_YYY

OCaml 4. 01 .0

cd ocaml make ./stepX_YYY

MATLAB (GNU Octave and MATLAB)

The MatLab implementation has been tested with GNU Octave 4.2.1. It has also been tested with MATLAB version R 2014 a on Linux. Note that MATLAB is a commercial product.

cd matlab ./stepX_YYY octave -q --no-gui --no-history --eval "stepX_YYY (); quit;" matlab -nodisplay -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm -r "stepX_YYY (); quit;"     # OR with command line arguments octave -q --no-gui --no-history --eval "stepX_YYY ('arg1', 'arg2'); quit;" matlab -nodisplay -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm -r "stepX_YYY ('arg1', 'arg2'); quit;"

miniMALis small Lisp interpreter implemented in less than 1024 bytes of JavaScript. To run the miniMAL implementation of mal you need to download / install the miniMAL interpreter (which requires Node.js).

cd miniMAL # Download miniMAL and dependencies npm install export PATH=`pwd` / node_modules / minimal-lisp /: $ PATH # Now run mal implementation in miniMAL miniMAL ./stepX_YYY

Perl 5

The Perl 5 implementation should work with perl 5. 19 .3 and later.

For readline line editing support, install Term :: ReadLine :: Perl or Term :: ReadLine :: Gnu from CPAN.

cd perl perl stepX_YYY.pl

Perl 6

The Perl 6 implementation was tested on Rakudo Perl 6 2016. 04.

cd perl6 perl6 stepX_YYY.pl

PHP 5.3

The PHP implementation of mal requires the php command line interface to run.

cd php php stepX_YYY.php

Picolisp

The Picolisp implementation requires libreadline and Picolisp 3.1. 11 or later.

cd picolisp ./run

(Pike)

The Pike implementation was tested on Pike 8.0.

cd pike pike stepX_YYY.pike

PL / pgSQL (PostgreSQL SQL Procedural Language)

The PL / pgSQL implementation of mal requires a running PostgreSQL server (the “kanaka / mal-test-plpgsql” docker image automatically starts a PostgreSQL server). The implementation connects to the PostgreSQL server and create a database named “mal” to store tables and stored procedures. The wrapper script uses the psql command to connect to the server and defaults to the user “postgres” but this can be overridden with the PSQL_USER environment variable. A password can be specified using the PGPASSWORD environment variable. The implementation has been tested with PostgreSQL 9.4.

cd plpgsql ./wrap.sh stepX_YYY.sql     # OR PSQL_USER=myuser PGPASSWORD=mypass ./wrap.sh stepX_YYY.sql

(PL / SQL (Oracle SQL Procedural Language))

The PL / SQL implementation of mal requires a running Oracle DB server (the “kanaka / mal-test-plsql” docker image automatically starts an Oracle Express server). The implementation connects to the Oracle server to create types, tables and stored procedures. The default SQL * Plus logon value (username / password @ connect_identifier) is “system / orac le “but this can be overridden with the ORACLE_LOGON environment variable. The implementation has been tested with Oracle Express Edition 11 g Release 2. Note that any SQL * Plus connection warnings (user password expiration, etc) will interfere with the ability of the wrapper script to communicate with the DB.

cd plsql ./wrap.sh stepX_YYY.sql     # OR ORACLE_LOGON=myuser / mypass @ ORCL ./wrap.sh stepX_YYY.sql

PostScript Level 2/3

The PostScript implementation of mal requires Ghostscript to run. It has been tested with Ghostscript 9. 10.

cd ps gs -q -dNODISPLAY -I./ stepX_YYY.ps

PowerShell

The PowerShell implementation of mal requires the PowerShell script language. It has been tested with PowerShell 6.0.0 Alpha 9 on Linux.

cd powershell powershell ./stepX_YYY.ps1

Python (2.X and 3.X)

cd python python stepX_YYY.py

Python.2 (3.X)

The second Python implementation makes heavy use of type annotations and uses the Arpeggio parser library.

# Recommended: do these steps in a Python virtual environment. pip3 install Arpeggio==1.9.0 python3 stepX_YYY.py

RPython

You must have (rpython) on your path (included with (PYPY) ).

cd rpython make # this takes a very long time ./stepX_YYY

R

The R implementation of mal requires R (r-base-core) to run.

cd r make libs # to download and build rdyncall Rscript stepX_YYY.r

Racket (5.3)

The Racket implementation of mal requires the Racket compiler / interpreter to run.

cd racket ./stepX_YYY.rkt

Rexx

The Rexx implementation of mal has been tested with Regina Rexx 3.6.

cd rexx make rexx -a ./stepX_YYY.rexxpp

Ruby (1.9 )

cd ruby ruby stepX_YYY.rb

Rust (1. 38 )

The rust implementation of mal requires the rust compiler and build tool (cargo) to build.

cd rust cargo run --release --bin stepX_YYY

Scala

Install scala and sbt (http://www.scala-sbt.org/0. 13 / tutorial / Installing-sbt-on-Linux.html):

cd scala sbt 'run-main stepX_YYY'     # OR sbt compile scala -classpath target / scala * / classes stepX_YYY

Scheme (R7RS)

The Scheme implementation of mal has been tested with Chibi-Scheme 0.7.3, Kawa 2.4, Gauche 0.9.5, CHICKEN 4. 11 .0, Sagittarius 0.8.3, Cyclone 0.6.3 (Git version) and Foment 0.4 (Git version). You should be able to get it running on other conforming R7RS implementations after figuring out how libraries are loaded and adjusting theMakefileandrunscript accordingly.

cd scheme make symlinks # chibi scheme_MODE=chibi ./run # kawa make kawa scheme_MODE=kawa ./run # gauche scheme_MODE=gauche ./run # chicken make chicken scheme_MODE=chicken ./run # sagittarius scheme_MODE=sagittarius ./run # cyclone make cyclone scheme_MODE=cyclone ./run # foment scheme_MODE=foment ./run

Skew

The Skew implementation of mal has been tested with Skew 0.7. 42.

cd skew make node stepX_YYY.js

Swift

The Swift implementation of mal requires the Swift 2.0 compiler (XCode 7.0) to build. Older versions will not work due to changes in the language and standard library.

cd swift make ./stepX_YYY

Swift 3

The Swift 3 implementation of mal requires the Swift 3.0 compiler. It has been tested with Swift 3 Preview 3.

cd swift3 make ./stepX_YYY

Swift 4

The Swift 4 implementation of mal requires the Swift 4.0 compiler. It has been tested with Swift 4.2.3 release.

cd swift4 make ./stepX_YYY

Tcl 8.6

The Tcl implementation of mal requires Tcl 8.6 to run. For readline line editing support, install tclreadline.

cd tcl tclsh ./stepX_YYY.tcl

TypeScript

The TypeScript implementation of mal requires the TypeScript 2.2 compiler. It has been tested with Node.js v6.

cd ts make node ./stepX_YYY.js

Vala

The Vala implementation of mal has been tested with the Vala 0. 40 .8 compiler. You will need to installValacandlibreadline-devor equivalent.

cd vala make ./stepX_YYY

VHDL

The VHDL implementation of mal has been tested with GHDL 0. 29.

cd vhdl make ./run_vhdl.sh ./stepX_YYY

Vimscript

The Vimscript implementation of mal requires Vim 8.0 to run.

cd vimscript ./run_vimscript.sh ./stepX_YYY.vim

Visual Basic .NET

The VB.NET implementation of mal has been tested on Linux using the Mono VB compiler (vbnc) and the Mono runtime (version 2. (******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************. 8.1). Both are required to build and run the VB.NET implementation.

cd vb make mono ./stepX_YYY.exe

WebAssembly (wasm)

The WebAssembly implementation is written inWam(WebAssembly Macro language) and runs under several different non-web embeddings (runtimes):node,wasmtime,wasmer,lucet,wax,wace,Warpy.

cd wasm # node make wasm_MODE=node ./run.js ./stepX_YYY.wasm # wasmtime make wasm_MODE=wasmtime wasmtime --dir=. / --dir=.. / --dir=/ ./stepX_YYY.wasm # wasmer make wasm_MODE=wasmer wasmer run --dir=. / --dir=.. / --dir=/ ./stepX_YYY.wasm # lucet make wasm_MODE=lucet lucet-wasi --dir=. /: ./ --dir=.. /: ../ --dir=/: / ./stepX_YYY.so # wax make wasm_MODE=wax wax ./stepX_YYY.wasm # wace make wasm_MODE=wace_libc wace ./stepX_YYY.wasm # warpy make wasm_MODE=warpy warpy --argv --memory-pages 256 ./stepX_YYY.wasm

Wren

The Wren implementation of mal was tested on Wren 0.2.0.

cd wren wren ./stepX_YYY.wren

Yorick

The Yorick implementation of mal was tested on Yorick 2.2. 04.

cd yorick yorick -batch ./stepX_YYY.i

Running tests

The top level Makefile has a number of useful targets to assist with implementation development and testing. The (help) target provides a list of the targets and options:

make help

Functional tests

The are almost 800 generic functional tests (for all implementations) in thetests /directory. Each step has a corresponding test file containing tests specific to that step. The (runtest.py) test harness launches a Mal step implementation and then feeds the tests one at a time to the implementation and compares the output / return value to the expected output / return value.

To run all the tests across all implementations (be prepared to wait):

make test

To run all tests against a single implementation:

make "test ^ IMPL"  # e.g. make "test ^ clojure" make "test ^ js"

To run tests for a single step against all implementations:

make "test ^ stepX"  # e.g. make "test ^ step2" make "test ^ step7"

To run tests for a specific step against a single implementation:

make "test ^ IMPL ^ stepX"  # e.g make "test ^ ruby ^ step3" make "test ^ ps ^ step4"

Self-hosted functional tests

To run the functional tests in self-hosted mode, you specifyMalas the test implementation and use theMAL_IMPLmake variable to change the underlying host language (default is JavaScript):

make MAL_IMPL=IMPL "test ^ mal ^ step2"  # e.g. make "test ^ mal ^ step2" # js is default make MAL_IMPL=ruby "test ^ mal ^ step2" make MAL_IMPL=python "test ^ mal ^ step2"

Starting the REPL

To start the REPL of an implementation in a specific step:

make "repl ^ IMPL ^ stepX"  # e.g make "repl ^ ruby ^ step3" make "repl ^ ps ^ step4"

If you omit the step , thenstepAis used:

make "repl ^ IMPL"  # e.g make "repl ^ ruby" make "repl ^ ps"

To start the REPL of the self-hosted implementation, specify (mal) as the REPL implementation and use theMAL_IMPLmake variable to change the underlying host language (default is JavaScript):

make MAL_IMPL=IMPL "repl ^ mal ^ stepX"  # e.g. make "repl ^ mal ^ step2" # js is default make MAL_IMPL=ruby "repl ^ mal ^ step2" make MAL_IMPL=python "repl ^ mal"

Performance tests

Warning: These performance tests are neither statistically valid nor comprehensive; runtime performance is a not a primary goal of mal. If you draw any serious conclusions from these performance tests, then please contact me about some amazing oceanfront property in Kansas that I’m willing to sell you for cheap.

To run performance tests against a single implementation:

make "perf ^ IMPL"  # e.g. make "perf ^ js"

To run performance tests against all implementations:

make "perf"

Generating language statistics

To report line and byte statistics for a single implementation:

make "stats ^ IMPL"  # e.g. make "stats ^ js"

Dockerized testing

Every implementation directory contains a Dockerfile to create a docker image containing all the dependencies for that implementation. In addition, the top-level Makefile contains support for running the tests target (and perf, stats, repl, etc) within a docker container for that implementation by passing“DOCKERIZE=1”on the make command line. For example:

make DOCKERIZE=1 "test ^ js ^ step3"

Existing implementations already have docker images built and pushed to the docker registry. However, if you wish to build or rebuild a docker image locally, the toplevel Makefile provides a rule for building docker images:

make "docker-build ^ IMPL"

Notes:

Docker images are named“kanaka / mal-test-IMPL”
JVM-based language implementations (Groovy, Java, Clojure, Scala): you will probably need to run this command once manually firstmake DOCKERIZE=1 "repl ^ IMPL"before you can run tests because runtime dependencies need to be downloaded to avoid the tests timing out. These dependencies are downloaded to dot-files in the / mal directory so they will persist between runs.

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