https://github.com/mkirchner/stutter

Implement a Lisp, in C, from scratch, no libs
https://github.com/mkirchner/stutter

ast c from-scratch lexer lisp make-a-lisp parser

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Implement a Lisp, in C, from scratch, no libs

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/mkirchner/stutter
• Owner: mkirchner
• License: mit
• Created: 2019-04-21T01:41:12.000Z (over 5 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2022-06-22T07:12:47.000Z (over 2 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2023-03-22T23:22:11.841Z (over 1 year ago)
• Topics: ast, c, from-scratch, lexer, lisp, make-a-lisp, parser
• Language: C
• Homepage:
• Size: 1.36 MB
• Stars: 65
• Watchers: 6
• Forks: 5
• Open Issues: 1
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

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README

        
![Build Status](https://github.com/mkirchner/stutter/workflows/C/C++%20CI/badge.svg)

Stutter - Lisp, from scratch, in C

==================================

![screenshot](doc/screenshot.png)

`stutter` is an educational Lisp interpreter implementation in C, written

entirely from scratch, not using any libraries (with the notable exception of

`editline` to maintain my sanity).

In other words, `stutter` is a practical exercise in a broad set of CS topics

including

* formal languages (lexing, parsing, abstract syntax trees)

* metalinguistic evaluation (eval/apply, macros)

* data structures (lists, trees, maps, arrays)

* automatic memory management (mark & sweep garbage collection)

All of it is implemented in one of the most bare-bones, down-to-earth

(and unforgiving) languages out there: C99.

`stutter` is a work in progress (and will be, for the forseeable future). See

[the tests](test/lang/) to get an idea of what the language is already capable

of.

The Rules

---------

Obviously, in modern our modern times, writing a Lisp interpreter is not

as challenging as it used to be since there are a lot of libraries that can

help us to achieve that goal. Hence, two rules:

1. Write everything from scratch.

2. Do not question the rules.

Getting started

---------------

Clone the repo and its submodules (submodules because the garbarge collector is in a [separate repo](https://github.com/mkirchner/gc)).

```bash

$ git clone --recursive [email protected]:mkirchner/stutter.git

$ cd stutter

$ make && make test

```

This should work on a Mac with a recent `clang`. No efforts to make it portable

(yet).

### Next steps

- [ ] Add a VM and support to compile to bytecode

- [ ] Document core language

- [ ] Better error reporting

  - [ ] Surface lexer token line/col info in the reader

- [ ] Core capabilities

  - [ ] `keyword` support

  - [ ] `vector` support (`Array` C type is implemented but not surfaced)

  - [ ] `hash-map` support (`Map` C type is available but not surfaced)

- [ ] Add a type system