Hello! === Question === Is it possible to write emacs lisp code that runs without modification when emacs is not available? Note: The question is mostly of academic interest. Currently I have no actual application in mind. === Motivation === Think about this scenario: Someone writes an emacs mode for editing a file format. Because convenient editing of the files requires parsing the format he implements a parser in emacs lisp. Because the parser is available in emacs lisp, he also writes converters in emacs lisp. At a later point the file format has become complex and popular. Popular enough to bring it to non-emacs-users and mobile devices. As a consequence the availability of Emacs (as a lisp platform) can no longer be assumed. While emacs could be installed as dependency on desktop platforms at the cost of a large installer, on mobile platforms this may not be feasible. As a consequence -- as far as I know -- the backend code would have to be rewritten in another language. === Possible solutions which I may just not know of === - An implementation of a subset of common lisp that compiles to emacs lisp byte code. `cl` doesn't count, as previous versions used constructs like `defun*' and current versions a prefix `cl-`. - A subset of emacs lisp that depends on as little C-code as possible. This might allow writing a standalone-interpreter in a language available on the target-system with acceptable effort by reusing parts of Emacs' *.el sources. kind regards, Klaus-Dieter