# mal - Make a Lisp [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/kanaka/mal.svg?branch=master)](https://travis-ci.org/kanaka/mal) ## Description Mal is a Clojure inspired Lisp interpreter. Mal is implemented in 59 languages: * Ada * GNU awk * Bash shell * C * C++ * C# * ChucK * GNU CLISP * Clojure * CoffeeScript * Crystal * D * Elixir * Emacs Lisp * Erlang * ES6 (ECMAScript 6 / ECMAScript 2015) * F# * Factor * Forth * Go * Groovy * GNU Guile * Haskell * Haxe * Io * Java * JavaScript ([Online Demo](http://kanaka.github.io/mal)) * Julia * Kotlin * Logo * Lua * GNU Make * mal itself * MATLAB * [miniMAL](https://github.com/kanaka/miniMAL) * Nim * Object Pascal * Objective C * OCaml * Perl * Perl 6 * PHP * PL/pgSQL (Postgres) * PL/SQL (Oracle) * Postscript * PowerShell * Python * RPython * R * Racket * Ruby * Rust * Scala * Swift * Swift 3 * Tcl * VHDL * Vimscript * Visual Basic.NET Mal is a learning tool. See the [make-a-lisp process guide](process/guide.md). Each implementation of mal is separated into 11 incremental, self-contained (and testable) steps that demonstrate core concepts of Lisp. The last step is capable of self-hosting (running the mal implementation of mal). The mal (make a lisp) steps are: * [step0_repl](process/guide.md#step0) * [step1_read_print](process/guide.md#step1) * [step2_eval](process/guide.md#step2) * [step3_env](process/guide.md#step3) * [step4_if_fn_do](process/guide.md#step4) * [step5_tco](process/guide.md#step5) * [step6_file](process/guide.md#step6) * [step7_quote](process/guide.md#step7) * [step8_macros](process/guide.md#step8) * [step9_try](process/guide.md#step9) * [stepA_mal](process/guide.md#stepA) Mal was presented publicly for the first time in a lightning talk at Clojure West 2014 (unfortunately there is no video). See examples/clojurewest2014.mal for the presentation that was given at the conference (yes the presentation is a mal program). At Midwest.io 2015, Joel Martin gave a presentation on Mal titled "Achievement Unlocked: A Better Path to Language Learning". [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgyOAiRtZGw), [Slides](http://kanaka.github.io/midwest.io.mal/). If you are interesting in creating a mal implementation (or just interested in using mal for something), please drop by the #mal channel on freenode. In addition to the [make-a-lisp process guide](process/guide.md) there is also a [mal/make-a-lisp FAQ](docs/FAQ.md) where I attempt to answer some common questions. ## Building/running implementations The simplest way to run any given implementation is to use docker. Every implementation has a docker image pre-built with language dependencies installed. You can launch the REPL using a convenience target in the top level Makefile (where IMPL is the implementation directory name and stepX is the step to run): ``` make DOCKERIZE=1 "repl^IMPL^stepX" # OR stepA is the default step: make DOCKERIZE=1 "repl^IMPL" ``` ### Ada *The Ada implementation was created by [Chris Moore](https://github.com/zmower)* The Ada implementation was developed with GNAT 4.9 on debian. It also compiles unchanged on windows if you have windows versions of git, GNAT and (optionally) make. There are no external dependencies (readline not implemented). ``` cd ada make ./stepX_YYY ``` ### GNU awk *The GNU awk implementation was created by [Miutsuru kariya](https://github.com/kariya-mitsuru)* The GNU awk implementation of mal has been tested with GNU awk 4.1.1. ``` cd gawk gawk -O -f stepX_YYY.awk ``` ### Bash 4 ``` cd bash bash stepX_YYY.sh ``` ### C The C implementation of mal requires the following libraries (lib and header packages): glib, libffi6, libgc, and either the libedit or GNU readline library. ``` cd c make ./stepX_YYY ``` ### C++ *The C++ implementation was created by [Stephen Thirlwall (sdt)](https://github.com/sdt)* The C++ implementation of mal requires g++-4.9 or clang++-3.5 and a readline compatible library to build. See the `cpp/README.md` for more details: ``` cd cpp make # OR make CXX=clang++-3.5 ./stepX_YYY ``` ### C# ### The C# implementation of mal has been tested on Linux using the Mono C# compiler (mcs) and the Mono runtime (version 2.10.8.1). Both are required to build and run the C# implementation. ``` cd cs make mono ./stepX_YYY.exe ``` ### ChucK *The ChucK implementation was created by [Vasilij Schneidermann](https://github.com/wasamasa)* The ChucK implementation has been tested with ChucK 1.3.5.2 on Arch Linux. ``` cd chuck ./run ``` ### GNU CLISP *The GNU CLISP implementation was created by [Iqbal Ansari](https://github.com/iqbalansari)* The implementation has been tested with GNU CLISP v2.49 on Ubuntu 16.04, 14.04 and 12.04 ``` cd clisp make ./run ``` ### Clojure For the most part the Clojure implementation requires Clojure 1.5, however, to pass all tests, Clojure 1.8.0-RC4 is required. ``` cd clojure lein with-profile +stepX trampoline run ``` ### CoffeeScript ``` sudo npm install -g coffee-script cd coffee coffee ./stepX_YYY ``` ### Crystal *The Crystal implementation of mal was created by [Linda_pp](https://github.com/rhysd)* The Crystal implementation of mal has been tested with Crystal 0.18.4. ``` cd crystal crystal run ./stepX_YYY.cr # OR make # needed to run tests ./stepX_YYY ``` ### D *The D implementation was created by [Dov Murik](https://github.com/dubek)* The D implementation of mal was tested with GDC 4.8. It requires the GNU readline library. ``` cd d make ./stepX_YYY ``` ### Emacs Lisp *The Emacs Lisp implementation was created by [Vasilij Schneidermann](https://github.com/wasamasa)* The Emacs Lisp implementation of mal has been tested with Emacs 24.3 and 24.5. While there is very basic readline editing (`` and `C-d` work, `C-c` cancels the process), it is recommended to use `rlwrap`. ``` cd elisp emacs -Q --batch --load stepX_YYY.el # with full readline support rlwrap emacs -Q --batch --load stepX_YYY.el ``` ### Elixir *The Elixir implementation was created by [Martin Ek (ekmartin)](https://github.com/ekmartin)* The Elixir implementation of mal has been tested with Elixir 1.0.5. ``` cd elixir mix stepX_YYY # Or with readline/line editing functionality: iex -S mix stepX_YYY ``` ### Erlang *The Erlang implementation was created by [Nathan Fiedler (nlfiedler)](https://github.com/nlfiedler)* The Erlang implementation of mal requires [Erlang/OTP R17](http://www.erlang.org/download.html) and [rebar](https://github.com/rebar/rebar) to build. ``` cd erlang make # OR MAL_STEP=stepX_YYY rebar compile escriptize # build individual step ./stepX_YYY ``` ### ES6 (ECMAScript 6 / ECMAScript 2015) The ES6 implementation uses the [babel](https://babeljs.io) compiler to generate ES5 compatible JavaScript. The generated code has been tested with Node 0.12.4. ``` cd es6 make node build/stepX_YYY.js ``` ### F# ### *The F# implementation was created by [Peter Stephens (pstephens)](https://github.com/pstephens)* The F# implementation of mal has been tested on Linux using the Mono F# compiler (fsharpc) and the Mono runtime (version 3.12.1). The mono C# compiler (mcs) is also necessary to compile the readline dependency. All are required to build and run the F# implementation. ``` cd fsharp make mono ./stepX_YYY.exe ``` ### Factor *The Factor implementation was created by [Jordan Lewis (jordanlewis)](https://github.com/jordanlewis)* The Factor implementation of mal has been tested with Factor 0.97 ([factorcode.org](http://factorcode.org)). ``` cd factor FACTOR_ROOTS=. factor -run=stepX_YYY ``` ### Forth *The Forth implementation was created by [Chris Houser (chouser)](https://github.com/chouser)* ``` cd forth gforth stepX_YYY.fs ``` ### Go The Go implementation of mal requires that go is installed on on the path. The implementation has been tested with Go 1.3.1. ``` cd go make ./stepX_YYY ``` ### Groovy The Groovy implementation of mal requires Groovy to run and has been tested with Groovy 1.8.6. ``` cd groovy make groovy ./stepX_YYY.groovy ``` ### GNU Guile 2.1+ *The Guile implementation was created by [Mu Lei (NalaGinrut)](https://github.com/NalaGinrut).* ``` cd guile guile -L ./ stepX_YYY.scm ``` ### Haskell Install the Haskell compiler (ghc/ghci), the Haskell platform and either the editline package (BSD) or the readline package (GPL). On Ubuntu these packages are: ghc, haskell-platform, libghc-readline-dev/libghc-editline-dev ``` cd haskell make ./stepX_YYY ``` ### Haxe The Haxe implementation of mal requires Haxe version 3.2 to compile. Four different Haxe targets are supported: Neko, Python, C++, and JavaScript. ``` cd haxe # Neko make all-neko neko ./stepX_YYY.n # Python make all-python python3 ./stepX_YYY.py # C++ make all-cpp ./cpp/stepX_YYY # JavaScript make all-js node ./stepX_YYY.js ``` ### Io *The Io implementation was created by [Dov Murik](https://github.com/dubek)* The Io implementation of mal has been tested with Io version 20110905. ``` cd io io ./stepX_YYY.io ``` ### Java 1.7 The Java implementation of mal requires maven2 to build. ``` cd java mvn compile mvn -quiet exec:java -Dexec.mainClass=mal.stepX_YYY # OR mvn -quiet exec:java -Dexec.mainClass=mal.stepX_YYY -Dexec.args="CMDLINE_ARGS" ``` ### JavaScript/Node ``` cd js npm update node stepX_YYY.js ``` ### Julia The Julia implementation of mal requires Julia 0.4. ``` cd julia julia stepX_YYY.jl ``` ### Kotlin *The Kotlin implementation was created by [Javier Fernandez-Ivern](https://github.com/ivern)* The Kotlin implementation of mal has been tested with Kotlin 1.0. ``` cd kotlin make java -jar stepX_YYY.jar ``` ### Logo *The Logo implementation was created by [Dov Murik](https://github.com/dubek)* The Logo implementation of mal has been tested with UCBLogo 6.0. ``` cd logo logo stepX_YYY.lg ``` ### Lua Running the Lua implementation of mal requires lua 5.1 or later, luarocks and the lua-rex-pcre library installed. ``` cd lua make # to build and link linenoise.so ./stepX_YYY.lua ``` ### Mal Running the mal implementation of mal involves running stepA of one of the other implementations and passing the mal step to run as a command line argument. ``` cd IMPL IMPL_STEPA_CMD ../mal/stepX_YYY.mal ``` ### GNU Make 3.81 ``` cd make make -f stepX_YYY.mk ``` ### Nim 0.11.0 *The Nim implementation was created by [Dennis Felsing (def-)](https://github.com/def-)* Running the Nim implementation of mal requires Nim 0.11.0 or later. ``` cd nim make # OR nimble build ./stepX_YYY ``` ### Object Pascal The Object Pascal implementation of mal has been built and tested on Linux using the Free Pascal compiler version 2.6.2 and 2.6.4. ``` cd objpascal make ./stepX_YYY ``` ### Objective C The Objective C implementation of mal has been built and tested on Linux using clang/LLVM 3.6. It has also been built and tested on OS X using XCode 7. ``` cd objc make ./stepX_YYY ``` ### OCaml 4.01.0 *The OCaml implementation was created by [Chris Houser (chouser)](https://github.com/chouser)* ``` cd ocaml make ./stepX_YYY ``` ### MATLAB The MATLAB implementation of mal has been tested with MATLAB version R2014a on Linux. Note that MATLAB is a commercial product. It should be fairly simple to support GNU Octave once it support classdef object syntax. ``` cd matlab ./stepX_YYY matlab -nodisplay -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm -r "stepX_YYY();quit;" # OR with command line arguments matlab -nodisplay -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm -r "stepX_YYY('arg1','arg2');quit;" ``` ### miniMAL [miniMAL](https://github.com/kanaka/miniMAL) is small Lisp interpreter implemented in less than 1024 bytes of JavaScript. To run the miniMAL implementation of mal you need to download/install the miniMAL interpreter (which requires Node.js). ``` cd miniMAL # Download miniMAL and dependencies npm install export PATH=`pwd`/node_modules/minimal-lisp/:$PATH # Now run mal implementation in miniMAL miniMAL ./stepX_YYY ``` ### Perl 5.8 For readline line editing support, install Term::ReadLine::Perl or Term::ReadLine::Gnu from CPAN. ``` cd perl perl stepX_YYY.pl ``` ### Perl 6 *The Perl 6 implementation was created by [Hinrik Örn Sigurðsson](https://github.com/hinrik)* The Perl 6 implementation was tested on Rakudo Perl 6 2016.04. ``` cd perl6 perl6 stepX_YYY.pl ``` ### PHP 5.3 The PHP implementation of mal requires the php command line interface to run. ``` cd php php stepX_YYY.php ``` ### PL/pgSQL (Postgres SQL Procedural Language) The PL/pgSQL implementation of mal requires a running Postgres server (the "kanaka/mal-test-plpgsql" docker image automatically starts a Postgres server). The implementation connects to the Postgres server and create a database named "mal" to store tables and stored procedures. The wrapper script uses the psql command to connect to the server and defaults to the user "postgres" but this can be overridden with the PSQL_USER environment variable. A password can be specified using the PGPASSWORD environment variable. The implementation has been tested with Postgres 9.4. ``` cd plpgsql ./wrap.sh stepX_YYY.sql # OR PSQL_USER=myuser PGPASSWORD=mypass ./wrap.sh stepX_YYY.sql ``` ### PL/SQL (Oracle SQL Procedural Language) The PL/pgSQL implementation of mal requires a running Oracle DB server (the "kanaka/mal-test-plsql" docker image automatically starts an Oracle Express server). The implementation connects to the Oracle server to create types, tables and stored procedures. The default SQL*Plus logon value (username/password@connect_identifier) is "system/oracle" but this can be overridden with the ORACLE_LOGON environment variable. The implementation has been tested with Oracle Express Edition 11g Release 2. Note that any SQL*Plus connection warnings (user password expiration, etc) will interfere with the ability of the wrapper script to communicate with the DB. ``` cd plsql ./wrap.sh stepX_YYY.sql # OR ORACLE_LOGON=myuser/mypass@ORCL ./wrap.sh stepX_YYY.sql ``` ### Postscript Level 2/3 The Postscript implementation of mal requires ghostscript to run. It has been tested with ghostscript 9.10. ``` cd ps gs -q -dNODISPLAY -I./ stepX_YYY.ps ``` ### PowerShell The PowerShell implementation of mal requires the PowerShell script language. It has been tested with PowerShell 6.0.0 Alpha 9 on Linux. ``` cd powershell powershell ./stepX_YYY.ps1 ``` ### Python (2.X or 3.X) ``` cd python python stepX_YYY.py ``` ### RPython You must have [rpython](https://rpython.readthedocs.org/) on your path (included with [pypy](https://bitbucket.org/pypy/pypy/)). ``` cd rpython make # this takes a very long time ./stepX_YYY ``` ### R The R implementation of mal requires R (r-base-core) to run. ``` cd r make libs # to download and build rdyncall Rscript stepX_YYY.r ``` ### Racket (5.3) The Racket implementation of mal requires the Racket compiler/interpreter to run. ``` cd racket ./stepX_YYY.rkt ``` ### Ruby (1.9+) ``` cd ruby ruby stepX_YYY.rb ``` ### Rust (1.0.0 nightly) The rust implementation of mal requires the rust compiler and build tool (cargo) to build. ``` cd rust cargo run --release --bin stepX_YYY ``` ### Scala ### Install scala and sbt (http://www.scala-sbt.org/0.13/tutorial/Installing-sbt-on-Linux.html): ``` cd scala sbt 'run-main stepX_YYY' # OR sbt compile scala -classpath target/scala*/classes stepX_YYY ``` ### Swift *The Swift implementation was created by [Keith Rollin](https://github.com/keith-rollin)* The Swift implementation of mal requires the Swift 2.0 compiler (XCode 7.0) to build. Older versions will not work due to changes in the language and standard library. ``` cd swift make ./stepX_YYY ``` ### Swift 3 The Swift 3 implementation of mal requires the Swift 3.0 compiler. It has been tested with Swift 3 Preview 3. ``` cd swift3 make ./stepX_YYY ``` ### Tcl 8.6 *The Tcl implementation was created by [Dov Murik](https://github.com/dubek)* The Tcl implementation of mal requires Tcl 8.6 to run. For readline line editing support, install tclreadline. ``` cd tcl tclsh ./stepX_YYY.tcl ``` ### VHDL *The VHDL implementation was created by [Dov Murik](https://github.com/dubek)* The VHDL implementation of mal has been tested with GHDL 0.29. ``` cd vhdl make ./run_vhdl.sh ./stepX_YYY ``` ### Vimscript *The Vimscript implementation was created by [Dov Murik](https://github.com/dubek)* The Vimscript implementation of mal requires Vim to run. It has been tested with Vim 7.4. ``` cd vimscript ./run_vimscript.sh ./stepX_YYY.vim ``` ### Visual Basic.NET ### The VB.NET implementation of mal has been tested on Linux using the Mono VB compiler (vbnc) and the Mono runtime (version 2.10.8.1). Both are required to build and run the VB.NET implementation. ``` cd vb make mono ./stepX_YYY.exe ``` ## Running tests ### Functional tests The are over 600 generic functional tests (for all implementations) in the `tests/` directory. Each step has a corresponding test file containing tests specific to that step. The `runtest.py` test harness launches a Mal step implementation and then feeds the tests one at a time to the implementation and compares the output/return value to the expected output/return value. To simplify the process of running tests, a top level Makefile is provided with convenient test targets. * To run all the tests across all implementations (be prepared to wait): ``` make test ``` * To run all tests against a single implementation: ``` make "test^IMPL" # e.g. make "test^clojure" make "test^js" ``` * To run tests for a single step against all implementations: ``` make "test^stepX" # e.g. make "test^step2" make "test^step7" ``` * To run tests for a specific step against a single implementation: ``` make "test^IMPL^stepX" # e.g make "test^ruby^step3" make "test^ps^step4" ``` ### Self-hosted functional tests * To run the functional tests in self-hosted mode, you specify `mal` as the test implementation and use the `MAL_IMPL` make variable to change the underlying host language (default is JavaScript): ``` make MAL_IMPL=IMPL "test^mal^step2" # e.g. make "test^mal^step2" # js is default make MAL_IMPL=ruby "test^mal^step2" make MAL_IMPL=python "test^mal^step2" ``` ### Starting the REPL * To start the REPL of an implementation in a specific step: ``` make "repl^IMPL^stepX" # e.g make "repl^ruby^step3" make "repl^ps^step4" ``` * If you omit the step, then `stepA` is used: ``` make "repl^IMPL" # e.g make "repl^ruby" make "repl^ps" ``` * To start the REPL of the self-hosted implementation, specify `mal` as the REPL implementation and use the `MAL_IMPL` make variable to change the underlying host language (default is JavaScript): ``` make MAL_IMPL=IMPL "repl^mal^stepX" # e.g. make "repl^mal^step2" # js is default make MAL_IMPL=ruby "repl^mal^step2" make MAL_IMPL=python "repl^mal" ``` ### Performance tests Warning: These performance tests are neither statistically valid nor comprehensive; runtime performance is a not a primary goal of mal. If you draw any serious conclusions from these performance tests, then please contact me about some amazing oceanfront property in Kansas that I'm willing to sell you for cheap. * To run performance tests against a single implementation: ``` make "perf^IMPL" # e.g. make "perf^js" ``` * To run performance tests against all implementations: ``` make "perf" ``` ### Generating language statistics * To report line and byte statistics for a single implementation: ``` make "stats^IMPL" # e.g. make "stats^js" ``` * To report line and bytes statistics for general Lisp code (env, core and stepA): ``` make "stats-lisp^IMPL" # e.g. make "stats-lisp^js" ``` ## Dockerized testing Every implementation directory contains a Dockerfile to create a docker image containing all the dependencies for that implementation. In addition, the top-level Makefile contains support for running the tests target (and perf, stats, repl, etc) within a docker container for that implementation by passing *"DOCKERIZE=1"* on the make command line. For example: ``` make DOCKERIZE=1 "test^js^step3" ``` Existing implementations already have docker images built and pushed to the docker registry. However, if you wish to build or rebuild a docker image locally, the toplevel Makefile provides a rule for building docker images: ``` make "docker-build^IMPL" ``` **Notes**: * Docker images are named *"kanaka/mal-test-IMPL"* * JVM-based language implementations (Groovy, Java, Clojure, Scala): you will probably need to run these implementations once manually first (make DOCKERIZE=1 "repl^IMPL")before you can run tests because runtime dependencies need to be downloaded to avoid the tests timing out. These dependencies are download to dot-files in the /mal directory so they will persist between runs. ## License Mal (make-a-lisp) is licensed under the MPL 2.0 (Mozilla Public License 2.0). See LICENSE.txt for more details.