Re: [BUG] Eval sets incorrect runtime metainformation

[Rob Browning <rlb@defaultvalue.org>]

Philip McGrath <philip@philipmcgrath.com> writes:

> I hadn't realized that other languages in Guile might compile to Tree-IL 
> directly instead of generating syntax objects. Is that common and/or 
> encouraged? It seems like it would require the new language's compiler 
> to do a lot of work that could otherwise be delegated to Guile, and it 
> would make it difficult to implement parts of the new language using macros.

For what it's worth, Lokke (a Clojure dialect) does both.  For the most
part it compiles by producing Scheme code from its reader that's then
rewritten by macros.  But it also includes a pass or two at the Tree-IL
level to handle some things that would be difficult to get right
otherwise (while also preserving the fairly tight integration with
Scheme that's intended).

For example, they handle adding support for "keywords as functions" (in
a generalized way), and resolving Clojure's namespaced symbols to Guile
module refs.

For anyone interested in the current arrangement (the README also covers
a bunch of limitations, differences, etc.):
https://codeberg.org/lokke/lokke/src/branch/main/DESIGN.md

-- 
Rob Browning
rlb @defaultvalue.org and @debian.org
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