So, I got tired of non-Lispers finding it difficult to build my software and ended up making my own build tool. Introducing Reika, the opinionated minimal dependency manager and build initiator, made primarily for Common Lisp programs (but it theoretically could work for other languages, too). https://fossil.cyberia9.org/reika/ It's just at v0.0.2, so expect it to be a bit fragile and evolve as it matures. There's a FAQ, some basic instructions, and a link to the manual on the main page.

I've already got #benben and XQATool working with it in their repos (Benben on the initial-1.0-work branch, XQATool on the trunk). Their next releases will use it exclusively. Users should be able to just run reika build and get a binary with this after installing SBCL and a few C dependencies from their distro's repositories. No messing with ASDF, Quicklisp, cloning Common Lisp dependencies, or the Lisp REPL.

#CommonLisp

So, I got tired of non-Lispers finding it difficult to build my software and ended up making my own build tool. Introducing Reika, the opinionated minimal dependency manager and build initiator, made primarily for Common Lisp programs (but it theoretically could work for other languages, too). https://fossil.cyberia9.org/reika/ It's just at v0.0.2, so expect it to be a bit fragile and evolve as it matures. There's a FAQ, some basic instructions, and a link to the manual on the main page.

I've already got #benben and XQATool working with it in their repos (Benben on the initial-1.0-work branch, XQATool on the trunk). Their next releases will use it exclusively. Users should be able to just run reika build and get a binary with this after installing SBCL and a few C dependencies from their distro's repositories. No messing with ASDF, Quicklisp, cloning Common Lisp dependencies, or the Lisp REPL.

#CommonLisp

Lem editor news: #clojure, #perl, #zig, #kotlin, WebAssembly Text format modes with LSP support, plus TOML and git-gutter.

https://lem-project.github.io/modes/

#lisp #commonlisp

Lem editor news: #clojure, #perl, #zig, #kotlin, WebAssembly Text format modes with LSP support, plus TOML and git-gutter.

https://lem-project.github.io/modes/

#lisp #commonlisp

Lem news: #treesitter support for JSON, YAML, Markdown, Nix, WAT.

https://lem-project.github.io/development/tree-sitter/

with AI in the loop.

#lisp #commonlisp

Lem news: #treesitter support for JSON, YAML, Markdown, Nix, WAT.

https://lem-project.github.io/development/tree-sitter/

with AI in the loop.

#lisp #commonlisp

It might sound somewhat unexpected from the person that’s just gone through a gargantuan effort of converting a (“small” yet still sizeable) #Scheme standard to #HTML, but… I’m still not sold on Scheme. True, it’s a

• Modern language.

• That gets Unicode and UTF-8 right.

• That has just enough operators to potentially do anything. (Any less ops and it’d become quite hard to accomplish some things.)

• That has reasonable semantics not tied to any machine. With sane memory model that works both in embedded and general programming!

• That is a Lisp. And that’s modernizing some things about family’s handling of… everything!

But still, I’m indecisive. #CommonLisp, exposed by this Scheme comparison as quite crusty with historic accidents, is still a better language in many ways:

• Typing (albeit quite simple) included in the core language.

• eval, read, and write heavily tunable for interpreter building, the very case Scheme should’ve excelled in.

• REPL and debugger behavior specified beyond probably what any language does in this regard.

• Extreme stability and portability of even non-trivial programs; “Triviality as a Virtue” library ethos as I call it.

• The ability to go full stateful and low-level, down to raw bits (not many languages actually can do that without bit masks etc.!) and GOTOs; huge/endless optimization opportunities.

Aaaaaargh. As someone in search of a universal and collapse/shit/future-proof basis for my computation, I’m extremely annoyed. Need to write some things in Scheme to make up my mind. Maybe make an SRFI or two (covering the CL areas above, typing is already covered!), possibly about meta-PL things like parsers and interpreters. Maybe that will expose me to real (yeah, I know, PLs are not “real” programming, but they well are for me!) Scheme and whether I want to commit to it.

It might sound somewhat unexpected from the person that’s just gone through a gargantuan effort of converting a (“small” yet still sizeable) #Scheme standard to #HTML, but… I’m still not sold on Scheme. True, it’s a

• Modern language.

• That gets Unicode and UTF-8 right.

• That has just enough operators to potentially do anything. (Any less ops and it’d become quite hard to accomplish some things.)

• That has reasonable semantics not tied to any machine. With sane memory model that works both in embedded and general programming!

• That is a Lisp. And that’s modernizing some things about family’s handling of… everything!

But still, I’m indecisive. #CommonLisp, exposed by this Scheme comparison as quite crusty with historic accidents, is still a better language in many ways:

• Typing (albeit quite simple) included in the core language.

• eval, read, and write heavily tunable for interpreter building, the very case Scheme should’ve excelled in.

• REPL and debugger behavior specified beyond probably what any language does in this regard.

• Extreme stability and portability of even non-trivial programs; “Triviality as a Virtue” library ethos as I call it.

• The ability to go full stateful and low-level, down to raw bits (not many languages actually can do that without bit masks etc.!) and GOTOs; huge/endless optimization opportunities.

Aaaaaargh. As someone in search of a universal and collapse/shit/future-proof basis for my computation, I’m extremely annoyed. Need to write some things in Scheme to make up my mind. Maybe make an SRFI or two (covering the CL areas above, typing is already covered!), possibly about meta-PL things like parsers and interpreters. Maybe that will expose me to real (yeah, I know, PLs are not “real” programming, but they well are for me!) Scheme and whether I want to commit to it.

I'm reading "Presentation Based User Interfaces", the dissertation and later revisions in which Eugene Ciccarelli laid the foundations of GUI frameworks such as Dynamic Windows of Symbolics Genera and CLIM.

https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6946

https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/41161/AI_WP_219.pdf

#retrocomputing #lisp #CLIM #CommonLisp

Even though the SBCL docs don't mention it I have successfully built it on Linux with an ECL which itself was bootstrapped from GCC. #commonlisp

Even though the SBCL docs don't mention it I have successfully built it on Linux with an ECL which itself was bootstrapped from GCC. #commonlisp

Lem editor news: Living Canvas.

> a visual code analysis feature that displays function call graphs as an interactive, Figma-like canvas. It helps developers understand code structure, relationships, and execution flow.

https://lem-project.github.io/usage/living-canvas/

#lisp #commonlisp

RE: https://framapiaf.org/@vindarel/115735865346350808

Vindarel @vindarel comments the discussions on Common Lisp needing more documentation and resources, which have been going on for at least the past decade, and what new things the ecosystem actually got over the decade.

I'm among those who'd like more books as I love Lisp and enjoy reading about it. As for tools and resources, it'll probably take me a lifetime until I outgrow what was available even a decade ago.

https://alexsci.com/blog/calm-tech-discover

#CommonLisp #lisp

"Lisp needs more…": the rant of a rant, some perspective, a call to action. WDYT? https://dev.to/vindarel/common-lisp-needs-more-documentation-tools-and-ideas-where-are-we-on-this-io sometimes it bears repeating.

#lisp #commonlisp

Fast Sequence Iteration in Common Lisp

https://world-playground-deceit.net/blog/2025/12/fast-sequence-iteration-in-common-lisp.html

#HackerNews #FastSequenceIteration #CommonLisp #Programming #Performance #TechBlog

"Lisp needs more…": the rant of a rant, some perspective, a call to action. WDYT? https://dev.to/vindarel/common-lisp-needs-more-documentation-tools-and-ideas-where-are-we-on-this-io sometimes it bears repeating.

#lisp #commonlisp

Finally got myself to publish the long-in-the-making post on how I manage #CommonLisp project dependencies. Been leaking through all the communication lately, so some of you know that I use submodules btw and they do work for my smart #REPL s and testing setups. Find details in “Common Lisp Dependency Vendoring with Submodules:”

https://aartaka.me/cl-submodules.html