Hi Frank, I've been thinking about this for some months now. The actor model is a great fit for a number of applications and the BEAM is made for it.Though it seems feasible, I'm afraid the result might not feel so close to Clojure, at least with any reasonable performance. I hope I'm wrong. I got this *impression* from attending several Erlang meetups[1] where the language developers explain their design decisions and how they are implemented in the BEAM. The conclusion seems to be: it's very hard to deviate from the baked in semantics. The biggest example is that the BEAM comes with a set of Data Types / Data Structures and they can't be extended. On the other hand, porting the actor model to Clojure and the JVM is within reach and Pulsar[2] is already there.
LFE shows some of the trade-offs involved when implementing a Lisp on the BEAM[3]. Robert Virdring has been implementing BEAM languages for years; I recommend anybody interested to watch his talks. He repeats how hard it is to add new semantics to the BEAM. On the other hand, Elixir has done it to some extent. In any case, it would be a *limited subset* of Clojure (much more limited than ClojureScript is). To get a better answer, I propose to list Clojure's "features" and then iterate through them to see if they can be reasonably implemented or if they even make sense in the platform: protocols multi-methods lazy collections refs (might make sense on top of mnesia) atoms (syn vars etc. Hope this helps Sebastian [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fctrWbgbJg0 [2] https://github.com/puniverse/pulsar [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvCBTpnlqs8 On Thursday, September 17, 2015 at 9:40:04 PM UTC+2, adrians wrote: > > Frank, I've also just found out about Lisp Flavored Erlang <http://lfe.io>, > which, based on what I've read, does take some inspiration from Clojure, as > well as Common Lisp. It seems to be more active compared to Joxa. > > On Friday, August 24, 2012 at 5:12:40 PM UTC-4, FrankS wrote: >> >> Just got this link "http://joxa.org"; about a new lisp-like language thru >> prismatic: >> >> <quote> >> >> Joxa is a small semantically clean, functional lisp. It is a >> general-purpose language encouraging interactive development and a >> functional programming style. Joxa runs on the Erlang Virtual Machine. Like >> other Lisps, Joxa treats code as data and has a full (unhygienic) macro >> system. >> >> Joxa (pronounced 'jocksah') isn't Erlang, though its very compatible. Its >> not Clojure though there is plenty of shared syntax. It's not Common Lisp >> though that is the source of the macro system. While Joxa shares elements >> of many languages, it is its own specific language. of all these languages, >> and knowing these languages will help you get up to speed with Joxa, but it >> is its own unique language. >> >> </quote> >> >> Just skimming the example shows a syntax that resembles clojure a little >> bit… >> >> Wonder if that implementation as an example would make it easier to have >> a clojure-on-erlang-vm implementation. >> >> Enjoy, Frank. >> >> >> On Jul 13, 2012, at 10:15 AM, Frank Siebenlist <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> > Just became aware of this effort: "http://erlangonxen.org/"; >> > >> > which shows off some impressive properties: >> > >> > * Startup time of a new instance is 100ms >> > * Instances are provisioned after the request arrival - all requests >> get handled >> > * No instances are running waiting for requests - the cloud footprint >> is zero >> > * the size of infrastructure is proportional to the maximum load - 8 >> servers may be enough >> > * … >> > >> > All that begs the Q: would Clojure on an Elang-VM be feasible and make >> sense? >> > >> > -FrankS. >> > >> > >> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] 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 [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
