Re:femtolisp: A lightweight, robust, scheme-like Lisp implem...
by embedding-shape on Monday February 23, 2026 @12:42PM
(#47125725)
Slightly unrelated, but you take what (hn item) you can get: What is the smallest lisp (semantically/language-wise) people know, that could be used for implementing itself? Theoretical or practical/"real" is less relevant, mostly just curious. So far, it seems Bel (by pg) might get the closest, but can't claim to be an expert, surely could be something smaller out there?
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Re:femtolisp: A lightweight, robust, scheme-like Lisp implem...
by pmcgoron on Monday February 23, 2026 @01:40PM
(#47126713)
Would SectorLISP (https://justine.lol/sectorlisp2/) count? It can run the LISP 1.5 metacircular evaluator.
Re:femtolisp: A lightweight, robust, scheme-like Lisp implem...
by soegaard on Monday February 23, 2026 @02:57PM
(#47127855)
This is pretty small.
http://scheme.dk/blog/2006/12/self-evaluating-evaluator.html
Re:femtolisp: A lightweight, robust, scheme-like Lisp implem...
by aportnoy on Monday February 23, 2026 @01:09PM
(#47126218)
Is Bel a smaller LISP than what's described in The Roots of Lisp? [1]
Re:femtolisp: A lightweight, robust, scheme-like Lisp implem...
by anthk on Monday February 23, 2026 @01:44PM
(#47126791)
Check Zenlisp and Kilo Lisp under http://t3x.org
Not the smallest, but a great example on how a Lisp can be reimplemented.