The website seems to have some bugs on mobile, seen on Chrome 147.0.7727.137
- Cannot horizontally scroll the code snippets on homepage when it overflows. The scroll bars appear but swiping the snippet does nothing.
- Footer links are unresponsive (loon, GitHub, MIT Licence links)
- In the changelog page, scrolling makes the hamburger menu hide release dates behind it
- Hamburger close chevron looks misaligned (not sure if this was a deliberate choice)
quotemstr 6 hours ago [-]
I like the ubiquitous type inference. It reminds me a bit of ELSA for Emacs Lisp: https://github.com/emacs-elsa/Elsa. In particular, type aware macros have been on my wishlist forever: there's no good reason I shouldn't be able to write, e.g. an elisp or CL/SBCL compiler-macro that specializes an operation based on its inferred type. In normal lisps, it's hard to get even the declared types.
That said, I wish that part of Loon were less coupled to the allocation model though. What made you opt for mandatory manual memory management in an otherwise high-level language? And effects?
There are two things common in language design that, honestly, strike me as unnecessary:
1. manual allocation and lifetime stacking, and
2. algebraic effects.
On 1: I think we often conflate the benefits of Rust-style mutability-xor-aliased reference discipline with the benefits of using literal malloc and free. You can achieve the former without necessitating the latter, and I think it leads to a nicer language experience.
It's not just true that GC "comes with latency spikes, higher memory usage, and unpredictable pauses" in any meaningful way with modern implementations of the concept. If anything, it leads to more consistent latency (no synchronous Drop of huge trees at unpredictable times) and better memory use (because good GCs use compressed pointers and compaction).
On 2: I get non-algebraic effects for delimited continuations. But lately I've seen people using non-flow-magical effects for everything. If you need to talk to a database, pick a database interface and pass an object implementing the interface to the code that needs it. Effects do basically the same thing, but implicitly.
gwerbin 5 hours ago [-]
I always saw algebraic effects as a more-ergonomic alternative to functor/applicative/monad for managing I/O and otherwise impure code. If you aren't particularly concerned with that level of purity then yeah it's "just" an indirect way to write an interface.
quotemstr 3 hours ago [-]
I've found that in practice, people use effects systems as dynamic-extent globals, like DEFVAR-ed variables in Lisp.
"Oh, it's not a global. Globals are bad. Effects are typed and blend into the function signature. Totally different and non-bad."
No. Typing the effects doesn't help: oh, sure, in Koka I can say that my function's type signature includes the "database connection" effect. Okay, that's a type. Where does the value backing that type come from? Thin air? No, the value backing an effect comes from the innermost handler, the identity of which, in a large program, is going to be hard to figure out.
Like all global variables, the sorts of "effects" currently in vogue will lead to sadness at scale. Globals don't stop being bad when we call them something else: they're still bits of ambient authority that frustrate local reasoning. It's as if everyone started smoking again but called cigarettes "mist popsicles" and claimed that they didn't cause cancer.
There's no way around writing down names for the capabilities we give a program and propagating these names from one part of the program to another. Every scheme to somehow free us from this chore is just smuggling in ambient authority by another name. Ambient authority is seductive. At small scales, it's fine. Better than fine! Beautiful. Then, one day, as your program scales and its maintainership churns, you find you have no idea who implements what.
Software engineering develops antibodies against these seductions. The problem is that the antibodies are name-based, so when we dress up old, bad ideas with new names, we have to re-learn why they're bad.
P.S. You might object, "You're talking about dynamic-extent effects. What about lexically-scoped effects systems?", you might ask. "These fix the problems with dynamic-extent effects."
Sure. Lexical effects are better. That's why every decent language already has a "lexically-scoped effect system". It's called let-over-lambda, or if you squint, an "object". We've come full circle.
thatxliner 7 hours ago [-]
Honestly, that's very cool
That was basically my intent with this project, but I took the laziest way to get there lol
hawkice 11 hours ago [-]
I think some comments are missing the upside of it being precisely Rust, without any new semantics. If you want lisp that compiles to machine code, Common Lisp can get reasonably efficient. The purpose of bringing Rust into it is to surface Rust-specific semantics -- which many people quite like!
j16sdiz 11 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
hawkice 10 hours ago [-]
Incorrect, and mean-spirited. Come on.
IncreasePosts 9 hours ago [-]
For what it's worth I thought it was a nice comment and I saw no sign of AI in it
Carp is memory safe via linear types + references, similar to Rust, so I would not describe it as C-like but rather Rust-like.
moefh 4 hours ago [-]
Pretty nifty. As of now, the code doesn't compile: there's some stray "span" stuff in codegen.rs[1], and it's trying to format `Warning` which doesn't implement `Display` in main.rs[2].
Fixing these, it runs mostly as advertised, but it seems to assume that one-letter types are always generic parameters, so it's impossible to (for example) generate this:
struct X;
enum A {
P(X),
Q
}
Trying this:
(struct X)
(enum A (P X) Q)
produces this:
struct X;
enum A<P, X> { Q }
while using a multi-letter type like `String`:
(enum A (P String) Q)
produces the expected:
enum A { P(String), Q }
One way to solve this would be to always require the generic annotation, and let it be empty when there are no generics, but when I tried that it did something weird:
Claims to have all the syntax covered, but not a single example of specifying lifetimes or the turbofish, some of the trickiest rust syntax
kibwen 10 hours ago [-]
If you already have the ability to express the grammar productions in Rust that allow for optionally-specified types (e.g. variable declaration), then you have the ability to express lifetimes and the turbofish (which is just a curious way to call a generic function with a specific type parameter). The only weird thing would be that Lisp uses the apostrophe character for something very different than Rust, but you could just pick any other way to denote lifetimes.
vermilingua 10 hours ago [-]
Could!
> Everything Rust has … expressed as s-expressions. No semantic gap.
kccqzy 9 hours ago [-]
The HRTB is probably the trickiest syntax for specifying lifetimes. It looks like `for<'a> F: Fn(&'a (u8, u16)) -> &'a u8`.
stdatomic 9 hours ago [-]
Can you translate this for those of us who don't speak rust?
Xirdus 9 hours ago [-]
Type F must be a function that's generic over any possible lifetime 'a, with a single argument that's a reference with lifetime 'a to a tuple of two numbers, and returns a reference with the same lifetime 'a to an 8-bit number.
The full code is usually something like:
fn foo<F>(callback: F) where for<'a> F: ...
Which is a generic function foo that takes the argument of type F, where F must be...
thatxliner 7 hours ago [-]
You can also drop into direct Rust with the (rust "...") macro if I forgot to implement anything
andrepd 11 hours ago [-]
It's a vibecoded parser...
gleenn 8 hours ago [-]
Technically it's a transpiler.
GalaxyNova 11 hours ago [-]
It seems like this is more like writing Rust in an s-expression syntax instead of having a proper lisp dialect that compiles to Rust, which is cool I guess but not very interesting.
It's quite weird-looking for someone who's done any amount of lisp programming.
noosphr 11 hours ago [-]
>Rust semantics with LISP syntax. A transparent s-expression frontend that compiles directly to Rust — no runtime, no GC
The first paragraph says literally that.
monocasa 11 hours ago [-]
Yeah, it sort of reminds me of the microcode assembly of a few of the lisp machines, that, while in s-expressions were also clearly not lisp themselves. But could be an interesting target for some lisp macros.
shawn_w 11 hours ago [-]
A let that defines variables that have a lifetime beyond the scope of the expression? Yeah, that's really unusual. And it's not even the oddest looking thing from the first example block of code.
skulk 8 hours ago [-]
So if I wanted to actually use this and I write some rust-but-lisp code and there's a compile error, will it show me a nice error message with an arrow pointing to where the error happened in my lisp code?
Can I use the amazing `rust-analyzer` LSP to get cool IDE features?
I suspect the answer is no, but these might be good further prompts to use.
thatxliner 7 hours ago [-]
Good idea! I'm adding error messages + spans ala ariadne now
jaggederest 10 hours ago [-]
Unfortunately, given the clear LLM basis of this project, s-expressions aren't a great choice. I've found coding agents struggle really hard with s-expression parentheses matching.
Much better to give them something more M-expr styled, I think a grammar that is LL(1) is probably helpful in that regard.
Basically the more you can piggyback on the training data depth for algol-style and pythonic languages the better.
lycopodiopsida 31 minutes ago [-]
It is absolutely not true, I've vibecoded an app for myself in CL and opus/sonnet had 0 problems with parens and types. Add to it an MCP to work with REPL and it is much more smooth than Go in my experience.
10 hours ago [-]
gleenn 10 hours ago [-]
That has definitely not been my experience as of late. I have produced multiple, largeish Clojure projects with AI that have been perfectly formatted and functional. Perhaps you were using an older or possibly smaller model? I am admittedly using Claude with higher end models and mid to high effort but it has been working great for months for me at this point.
jaggederest 7 hours ago [-]
Nope, but to be fair when you're working on your own novel S-exprs you don't have LSPs to guide the coding agent. I imagine that it works a lot better in the context of a known and understood language environment like Clojure, CL, scheme, etc. The other option would be to write an LSP in a non-S-expr language to ensure that no turn can end with mismatched parens, for example.
thatxliner 7 hours ago [-]
If anyone is curious, I've been making this using DeepSeek v4 Flash with Claude Code as the harness
dleslie 10 hours ago [-]
Opus 4.6 handles elisp just fine. But I suppose YMMV.
2ndorderthought 10 hours ago [-]
Why are we even spending time on this. It's vibe coded slop. The creator probably never even ran it before it got to HN
lefra 4 hours ago [-]
> ((. dx powf 2.0) + (. dy powf 2.0)) sqrt))
I don't know what this is, but clearly not Lisp...
stevefan1999 8 hours ago [-]
Greenspun's tenth rule of programming is an aphorism in computer programming and especially programming language circles that states:[1][2]
Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.
Maybe we should one day include Golang or Rust to it
Greenspun's tenth rule was formulated in a time before things like first-class functions were commonplace in industrial languages. Rust supports not just functional programming idioms but outright Scheme-style macros, it's out of scope for Greenspun's.
amelius 10 hours ago [-]
This is probably what Rust's internal ASTs look like. But why would you want to input programs as ASTs?
physPop 10 hours ago [-]
so you can do the transformations (see the rlisp macro section)
amelius 10 hours ago [-]
Yes, but you could do the same by transforming Rust's ASTs. The only downside is that your input format is different from the format you are transforming. But the upside is that readability is much improved, which matters because code is typically read far more often than it is written.
OhMeadhbh 10 hours ago [-]
How do you change the syntax to eliminate reverse compatibility? I guess you could change the names of most key functions between releases. But to be compatible with rust you would need to make breaking changes every release.
chrisweekly 7 hours ago [-]
Should be named "Rutht"
zareith 6 hours ago [-]
Anyone working on something similar that compiles to go?
stuaxo 11 hours ago [-]
"no runtime, no GC, just" I am BEGGING every project to not have this LLMism in their docs.
It reads as No X no Y just slop to me every time.
andrepd 11 hours ago [-]
It's completely nonsensical too. Why would a parser for an alternative syntax introduce a GC?!
NooneAtAll3 7 hours ago [-]
does there exist something that can do the opposite?
some pre-processor that "compiles into rust" from less awful syntax?
nxobject 10 hours ago [-]
"Lust", or "Risp"?
zephen 8 hours ago [-]
Nah.
It's sort of, but not quite, like "El jefe"
"L rut piss"
moron4hire 10 hours ago [-]
I don't understand why this had to be LLM generated. S-expression syntax parsers are not hard to write. That's rather much the point of S-expressions.
Maxatar 9 hours ago [-]
>S-expression syntax parsers are not hard to write.
I'm not sure I quite understand the point of your comment.
Are you implying that LLMs should be used for very hard to write code? I feel like the best use of LLMs is to automate the easy stuff so that I can focus on the hard to write stuff.
thatxliner 8 hours ago [-]
For everyone who is shaming on the project for "not implementing enough," then you can definitely help me with it.
For everyone who is shaming on the project for being "LLM slop," sure but that's the reason why something like this can exist in the first place. The point isn't to be a finished, production-ready product. The point is to be an interesting work, and just a sly bit silly
eiiot 8 hours ago [-]
> compiles directly to Rust — no runtime, no GC, just (s-expr → .rs → binary).
Can we please write our own READMEs before posting to HN?
slopinthebag 10 hours ago [-]
How is pure unbridled AI slop like this making the front page? Voting rings?
I don't even feel bad saying this because clearly OP is just the front for Claude here.
Scheme already has hygenic macros, I don't get why you'd vibecode a worse (less battle tested, llm-generated) replacement. I'm not sure why this hit the front-page, to be honest, because it doesn't seem noteworthy or interesting (Anyone and their mother can vibecode something like this in eight hours)
wk_end 11 hours ago [-]
Scheme doesn't have Rust semantics, though?
zem 11 hours ago [-]
this is not a replacement for scheme, it's simply an alternative syntax for rust
xigoi 4 hours ago [-]
Because Rust syntax is ugly and overcomplicated.
Rendered at 10:23:53 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
- Cannot horizontally scroll the code snippets on homepage when it overflows. The scroll bars appear but swiping the snippet does nothing. - Footer links are unresponsive (loon, GitHub, MIT Licence links) - In the changelog page, scrolling makes the hamburger menu hide release dates behind it - Hamburger close chevron looks misaligned (not sure if this was a deliberate choice)
That said, I wish that part of Loon were less coupled to the allocation model though. What made you opt for mandatory manual memory management in an otherwise high-level language? And effects?
There are two things common in language design that, honestly, strike me as unnecessary:
1. manual allocation and lifetime stacking, and
2. algebraic effects.
On 1: I think we often conflate the benefits of Rust-style mutability-xor-aliased reference discipline with the benefits of using literal malloc and free. You can achieve the former without necessitating the latter, and I think it leads to a nicer language experience.
It's not just true that GC "comes with latency spikes, higher memory usage, and unpredictable pauses" in any meaningful way with modern implementations of the concept. If anything, it leads to more consistent latency (no synchronous Drop of huge trees at unpredictable times) and better memory use (because good GCs use compressed pointers and compaction).
On 2: I get non-algebraic effects for delimited continuations. But lately I've seen people using non-flow-magical effects for everything. If you need to talk to a database, pick a database interface and pass an object implementing the interface to the code that needs it. Effects do basically the same thing, but implicitly.
"Oh, it's not a global. Globals are bad. Effects are typed and blend into the function signature. Totally different and non-bad."
No. Typing the effects doesn't help: oh, sure, in Koka I can say that my function's type signature includes the "database connection" effect. Okay, that's a type. Where does the value backing that type come from? Thin air? No, the value backing an effect comes from the innermost handler, the identity of which, in a large program, is going to be hard to figure out.
Like all global variables, the sorts of "effects" currently in vogue will lead to sadness at scale. Globals don't stop being bad when we call them something else: they're still bits of ambient authority that frustrate local reasoning. It's as if everyone started smoking again but called cigarettes "mist popsicles" and claimed that they didn't cause cancer.
There's no way around writing down names for the capabilities we give a program and propagating these names from one part of the program to another. Every scheme to somehow free us from this chore is just smuggling in ambient authority by another name. Ambient authority is seductive. At small scales, it's fine. Better than fine! Beautiful. Then, one day, as your program scales and its maintainership churns, you find you have no idea who implements what.
Software engineering develops antibodies against these seductions. The problem is that the antibodies are name-based, so when we dress up old, bad ideas with new names, we have to re-learn why they're bad.
P.S. You might object, "You're talking about dynamic-extent effects. What about lexically-scoped effects systems?", you might ask. "These fix the problems with dynamic-extent effects."
Sure. Lexical effects are better. That's why every decent language already has a "lexically-scoped effect system". It's called let-over-lambda, or if you squint, an "object". We've come full circle.
That was basically my intent with this project, but I took the laziest way to get there lol
https://www.eriksvedang.com/carp
https://github.com/tomhrr/dale
Fixing these, it runs mostly as advertised, but it seems to assume that one-letter types are always generic parameters, so it's impossible to (for example) generate this:
Trying this: produces this: while using a multi-letter type like `String`: produces the expected: One way to solve this would be to always require the generic annotation, and let it be empty when there are no generics, but when I tried that it did something weird: produces: I have no idea where the `_` and the comment came from.[1] https://github.com/ThatXliner/rust-but-lisp/blob/70c51a107b2...
[2] https://github.com/ThatXliner/rust-but-lisp/blob/70c51a107b2...
> Everything Rust has … expressed as s-expressions. No semantic gap.
The full code is usually something like:
fn foo<F>(callback: F) where for<'a> F: ...
Which is a generic function foo that takes the argument of type F, where F must be...
It's quite weird-looking for someone who's done any amount of lisp programming.
The first paragraph says literally that.
Can I use the amazing `rust-analyzer` LSP to get cool IDE features?
I suspect the answer is no, but these might be good further prompts to use.
Much better to give them something more M-expr styled, I think a grammar that is LL(1) is probably helpful in that regard.
Basically the more you can piggyback on the training data depth for algol-style and pythonic languages the better.
I don't know what this is, but clearly not Lisp...
Any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.
Maybe we should one day include Golang or Rust to it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenspun%27s_tenth_rule
It reads as No X no Y just slop to me every time.
some pre-processor that "compiles into rust" from less awful syntax?
It's sort of, but not quite, like "El jefe"
"L rut piss"
I'm not sure I quite understand the point of your comment.
Are you implying that LLMs should be used for very hard to write code? I feel like the best use of LLMs is to automate the easy stuff so that I can focus on the hard to write stuff.
For everyone who is shaming on the project for being "LLM slop," sure but that's the reason why something like this can exist in the first place. The point isn't to be a finished, production-ready product. The point is to be an interesting work, and just a sly bit silly
Can we please write our own READMEs before posting to HN?
I don't even feel bad saying this because clearly OP is just the front for Claude here.