A Lisp in 99LOC

https://github.com/Robert-van-Engelen/tinylisp

108•shikaan•5mo ago

Comments

OhMeadhbh•5mo ago

Previously:

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32100035

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32095655

and

* https://BI6.US/CO/N/20250420.HTML#/042402

eqvinox•5mo ago

Holy cow this is —structurally, not just expression— some of the worst C code I have ever seen, with the abuse of the 'double' type, 'T' cast that looks like a declaration, endian dependency, and strict aliasing violations galore… does this even work on a modern compiler? o.O

omoikane•5mo ago

It does not, because there is a syntax error on line 81 (extra close parenthesis):

https://github.com/Robert-van-Engelen/tinylisp/blob/2d0fb35b...

Y_Y•5mo ago

Brought to you by this marvellous commit with the message "update",

https://github.com/Robert-van-Engelen/tinylisp/commit/40c6c0...

OhMeadhbh•5mo ago

Yeah. It's munged to fit in 99 lines.

eqvinox•5mo ago

That's besides my point, which is why I said "structure, not just expression".

It could've used a struct rather than wedging tags into a double's first byte and still be 99 lines.

Spivak•5mo ago

If that's the trick you object to then you will be sad to hear that Ruby uses it.

fami-com•5mo ago

That's a standard technique in interpreters. All non-toy Javascript engines use it, for example.

cardiffspaceman•5mo ago

Nan-boxing is awesome.

messe•5mo ago

Surpringly readable though, despite all that, if you've ever implanted a language in similar constraints.

messe•5mo ago

*implemented.

Too late to edit now.

f1shy•5mo ago

Certainly not the worst I have seen, by far; but yes, not pretty. IMHO “Just for making it shorter“. I would very much prefer 200 lines of actually readable nice code.

sevensor•5mo ago

For reading, I enjoyed fe, which was very clear: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36239175

f1shy•5mo ago

Yes! Exactly what I meant. 700 lines, but of code that can be understood, and looks clearly as C. Also btw, the general file structure, the documentation, I prefer fe any day of the week. Thanks for pointing that out, I will take a look at it.

nivertech•5mo ago

A better starting point:

https://github.com/Robert-van-Engelen/tinylisp/blob/main/tin...

lisper•5mo ago

Lisp in ~100 lines of Python:

https://flownet.com/ron/l.py

f1shy•5mo ago

Or from the venerable: https://norvig.com/lispy.html

ginko•5mo ago

Can’t you just “import lisp”?

lisper•5mo ago

Um, no?

    Python 3.11.6 (v3.11.6:8b6ee5ba3b, Oct  2 2023, 11:18:21) [Clang 13.0.0 (clang-1300.0.29.30)] on darwin
    Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
    >>> import lisp
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
    ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'lisp'

coderatlarge•5mo ago

can it execute the y-combinator?

spyrja•5mo ago

It doesn't appear to, but you could always add this to the included common.lisp file:

  (define Y (lambda (f) (lambda args ((f (Y f)) . args))))

f1shy•5mo ago

I’m pretty sure does not handle TCO… so probably not, unless with a huge stack.

gbacon•5mo ago

See tinylisp-extras.c for TCO.

https://github.com/Robert-van-Engelen/tinylisp/blob/2d0fb35b...

jhbadger•5mo ago

It's interesting that he seems to have written this for a pocket computer, because there actually was a pocket computer of similar vintage that had LISP built in -- 1989's Casio AI-1000

https://pockemul.com/index.php/2020/04/27/pockemul-1-10-0-ne...

forgotpwd16•5mo ago

>C code in this project is strongly Lisp-like in compact form

Kinda reminds me J-flavored Whitney's one-page J interpreter.

mark_l_watson•5mo ago

The commented longer program listing was fun to read.

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Show HN: I saw this cool navigation reveal, so I made a simple HTML+CSS version

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History and Timeline of the Proco Rat Pedal (2021)

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Unseen Footage of Atari Battlezone Arcade Cabinet Production

Where did all the starships go?

Show HN: Look Ma, No Linux: Shell, App Installer, Vi, Cc on ESP32-S3 / BreezyBox

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Show HN: Kappal – CLI to Run Docker Compose YML on Kubernetes for Local Dev

I Write Games in C (yes, C)

We Mourn Our Craft

SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes

Hoot: Scheme on WebAssembly

Brookhaven Lab's RHIC Concludes 25-Year Run with Final Collisions

Stories from 25 Years of Software Development

The AI boom is causing shortages everywhere else

OpenCiv3: Open-source, cross-platform reimagining of Civilization III

U.S. Jobs Disappear at Fastest January Pace Since Great Recession

Al Lowe on model trains, funny deaths and working with Disney

The Waymo World Model

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback

Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

Vocal Guide – belt sing without killing yourself

Show HN: I saw this cool navigation reveal, so I made a simple HTML+CSS version

Coding agents have replaced every framework I used

France's homegrown open source online office suite

A Fresh Look at IBM 3270 Information Display System

72M Points of Interest

History and Timeline of the Proco Rat Pedal (2021)

Selection Rather Than Prediction

Unseen Footage of Atari Battlezone Arcade Cabinet Production

Where did all the starships go?

Show HN: Look Ma, No Linux: Shell, App Installer, Vi, Cc on ESP32-S3 / BreezyBox

Monty: A minimal, secure Python interpreter written in Rust for use by AI

Learning from context is harder than we thought

Hackers (1995) Animated Experience

Microsoft Account bugs locked me out of Notepad – are Thin Clients ruining PCs?

Making geo joins faster with H3 indexes

Show HN: Kappal – CLI to Run Docker Compose YML on Kubernetes for Local Dev

A Lisp in 99LOC

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