There was talk of an LLVM backend a while back, but I believe LLVM was deemed too low-level to be useful. That was, in fact, why I signed the contributor agreement. So, I'd love to see some movement on a C back-end.
Gambit Scheme has a special form that emits C (or C++) code. It's very useful. I can't remember which Lisp it was, but there was definitely a lisp which had an emit-C as it's *only* special form. It might have been one of the embedded schemes. Last time I looked, I also saw ClojureC: It looked useful, but hasn't been touched in 3 years. https://github.com/schani/clojurec And here's a clojure-to-scheme compiler that used Gambit to target native: https://github.com/takeoutweight/clojure-scheme (In fact, this might be what I was thinking about with the special form above.) IMHO, native is useful for embedded systems and command-line programs (where JVM start-up time can make a comand simply unusable). On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 3:47 PM, JvJ <kfjwhee...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > I've been wondering lately about getting Clojure to compile to native > code, and so I've been doing some looking around. > > There are a few projects that are on the right track, such as TinyClojure > <https://github.com/WillDetlor/TinyClojure> and Ferret > <http://nakkaya.com/2011/06/29/ferret-an-experimental-clojure-compiler/>, > but they are incomplete and don't seem to be under active development any > more. > > I'm wondering about the requirements, how much work it would take, and > whether or not it would be worth it. My current thinking is of a > Clojure->C/C++ compiler. > > So far, I have a few topics for discussion that I'm unclear about that > might be necessary for this kind of project: > > - Can the Immutable Persistent Data Structures be implemented with a > reference-counting scheme rather than a garbage collector? This may > improve performance. > - In a similar vein, can the allocation strategy be controlled for > these structures in such a way as to optimize cache locality? > - Can we take advantage of tail-call optimization in existing C++ > compilers? > - It wouldn't have to depend on an existing runtime environment like > JVM or JavaScript. > - Could this reduce reliance on reflection and increase performance? > - Could a new, clojure-optimized runtime be created that improves > performance? > - Could certain anonymous functions be optimized or inlined in a way > that improves performance over JVM/JS implementations? > - Is there a way to compile C++ code at runtime? This would be > essential for the REPL and for Macros. > > > Let me know if anyone has any thoughts on the matter. > > Thanks > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Clojure" group. > To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com > Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with > your first post. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Clojure" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
