Arc Forumnew | comments | leaders | submitlogin
4 points by akkartik 1947 days ago | link | parent

Thanks for the probing questions! Yes, I don't mean to move the goalposts on my reasons. I feel like I'm reaching for something fundamental that could end up having lots of different benefits, mostly things I can't anticipate.

I don't actually care that much what the high level language is at the top. I'm biased toward Lisp :) so that's what I'm going to build towards. But if others want a different language I want to make it easy to switch the superficial syntax to suit their taste -- and convert all existing code on the stack so everything is consistent and easy to read. If some others want to add new runtime features, I want to make that easy too. Finally, I want it to be tractable to mix and match syntax and runtime features from different people and still end up with something consistent. Using tests at the bottom-most layers, and building more rigorous type systems and formalisms as necessary higher up.

The key that would make this (and much else) possible is making the global structure of the codebase easier to comprehend so that others can take it in new directions and add expertise I won't ever gain by myself, in a way that I and others can learn from.

Ignore the other prototypes in this repo; they're just details. The goal I'm working toward is a single coherent stack that is easy for others to comprehend and modify.

This isn't a product, in the sense that I can't/won't charge money for it. I'm not really making something others want right now. I'm trying to make something I think the world needs, and I'm trying to make the case for something the world hasn't considered to be a good idea yet. I'm sure I don't have all the details nailed down yet :)



3 points by i4cu 1947 days ago | link

> I'm trying to make something I think the world needs, and I'm trying to make the case for something the world hasn't considered to be a good idea yet. I'm sure I don't have all the details nailed down yet :)

"To boldy go where no man has gone before"

"Second star on the Left"

I can get behind that :)

-----