A typo'd symbol used to auto-intern an unbound var and die later as
'Cannot call nil as a function' with no hint which symbol. Now:
$ jolt -e '(undefined-fn 1)'
Error: Unable to resolve symbol: undefined-fn in this context
The analyzer's :unresolved fallthrough now punts to the interpreter
(whose resolver raises the message above when the form runs) instead of
emitting a var-ref that interned the var. A punt rather than a hard
throw because runtime-interning forms (defmulti's setup) legitimately
reference the var they're about to create from a nested do.
Pulling that thread surfaced three real bugs the leniency was masking:
- h-resolve-global resolved unqualified symbols against ctx-current-ns,
which during analysis is jolt.analyzer — so user-ns vars NEVER
resolved through it; the lenient arm happened to emit the right ns.
Now resolves against the compile ns like the qualified branch.
- Top-level (do ...) wasn't split: Clojure compiles and EVALS each
child in sequence so earlier children's runtime effects (defmulti's
intern) are visible while later children compile. eval-toplevel now
splits.
- The stdlib itself had forward references the auto-intern hid:
10-seq's transducers used vreset!/vswap! from 20-coll (moved to
10-seq); in 20-coll qualified-ident?/realized?/list*/underive
referenced defs declared later in the file (reordered); sorted? and
partition-all are genuinely later-tier and got (declare ...).
Test rows updated where they encoded the old leniency: ir-passes'
dead-branch row (unresolved in a dead branch is an error, as in
Clojure), compile-mode's ctx-isolation row (other ctx now errors
instead of reading nil), cli rows assert the new message. Gate green,
conformance 335/335 x3, suite 4718 steady, bench within noise.
Loading these libs via require worked (load-ns-source interprets, macros
expand lazily) but the same code inlined by uberscript routes through
eval-toplevel and compiled, surfacing four gaps:
- a ^{:map} metadata def name reads as (def (with-meta name m) v); the
analyzer died extracting the name (config.core's defonce env). It now
throws uncompilable so the interpreter, which handles it, takes over.
- declare was a no-op, so a compiled forward reference to a declared
name that collides with a janet root binding bound to the host fn
(selmer.parser's (declare parse) compiled to janet's 1-arg parse).
declare now expands to no-init defs, the interpreter interns them,
and the analyzer routes no-init def to the interpreter.
- class? was missing (selmer.util's exception macro calls it at
expansion time). Always false, like ratio? — no Class objects here.
- require of an unlocatable namespace silently left an empty ns behind,
deferring the failure to an unresolved symbol far from the cause. It
now throws like Clojure's FileNotFoundException. Namespaces entered
in-session count as loaded (Clojure puts them in *loaded-libs*), and
the SCI bootstrap opts out via :lenient-require? since its
clj-targeted requires can't all exist on this host.
init in compile mode is ~2.4 s (tier loading, analyzer self-compile, macro
recompilation), paid by every process that builds a ctx from source — each
jpm-test file, embedders, workers. init-cached marshals the built ctx to a
disk image (same root-env dicts as snapshot/fork) and later processes
unmarshal it in ~5 ms, any process: nothing from the baking process is
needed at load.
The cache key fingerprints the embedded .clj stdlib (which covers jolt-core:
analyzer, IR, core tiers), the .janet seed sources next to the module, the
janet version, the init opts, and the env knobs that shape a ctx (JOLT_PATH/
MUTABLE/AOT_CORE/FEATURES) — any change rebuilds. Corrupt or non-ctx images
fall back to a rebuild (unmarshal of garbage can 'succeed' with a scalar, so
the shape is checked, not just the throw). Writes are atomic (tmp + rename)
so racing cold starts never publish a torn image. JOLT_NO_IMAGE_CACHE=1
opts out; JOLT_IMAGE_CACHE_DIR overrides the location (default TMPDIR).
Test consumers switch to init-cached (harness, suite-worker, conformance,
the behavioral unit/integration tests); tests that validate the bootstrap
itself (bootstrap-fixpoint, staged-bootstrap, aot round-trip, direct-linking)
and the deps tests (tmp-dir :paths would fragment the key) keep real init.
Full jpm test: 2:46 -> 1:58 (~29%). New ctx-image-test covers cold/warm,
cross-process load (subprocess runs defn/redef/macros/protocols/multimethods
off the baked image), per-opts keying, and corrupt-image fallback.
adds self-hosted compiler is functionally:
- The default compile path is the portable pipeline using jolt.analyzer (Clojure) → host-neutral IR → backend.janet.
- The analyzer is itself Clojure, compiled by jolt for true self-hosting.
- bootstrap-fixpoint passes (stage1 == stage2 == stage3): rebuilding the compiler on its own output.
- clojure.core is now self-hosted in the overlay.
- Stateful forms (defmacro/ns/deftype/defmulti/require/in-ns) are interpreted by design.
Two changes unlock native Janet speed in compile mode:
- Hot numeric primitives (+ - * < > <= >=) emit as native Janet SYMBOLS rather
than the variadic core fns, so Janet's compiler uses its arithmetic/compare
opcodes. = / not= / quot / rem / mod / division stay as core fns (their
semantics differ from Janet's). Trade-off: the strict non-number checks are
relaxed under compilation (documented perf-mode divergence).
- emit-invoke emits a DIRECT call (f arg...) when the callee is a function
reference (core/local/symbol/fn), instead of wrapping every call in jolt-call.
jolt-call is kept only for keyword/collection literals in call position
((:k m), ({:a 1} :a)) so IFn dispatch still works.
compiled fib(30): 3.4s -> 0.076s (native ceiling), faster than jank's 0.8s.
Updated compiler-test string assertions (core-+ -> +); compile-mode-test gains
native-op + IFn-dispatch cases; README documents compile mode. jpm test green.
Compile mode was broken: compiled defns interned only into the jolt namespace,
which Janet's eval couldn't see, so calling a compiled function threw 'unknown
symbol'. And load-string ignored :compile? entirely.
- Each context gets a persistent Janet env (ctx-janet-env), a child of the
compiler module env (so core-* resolve) holding the context's user defs.
compile-and-eval evals into it, so def/defn persist and resolve across forms;
contexts stay isolated. nil ctx (one-off eval) gets a fresh child.
- Emit a named fn for defn ((def f (fn f [..] (f ..)))) so recursion resolves
lexically (the anonymous form couldn't forward-reference f at compile time).
- Extract eval-one (per-form routing) and use it in both eval-string and
load-string, so load-string honors :compile?. Stateful forms still interpret.
compiled fib(30): ~50s (interpreted) -> 3.4s (~15x). spec: compile-mode-test
gains cross-form/recursion/def + context-isolation cases. jpm test green.
Fast operator emission (the rest of the win) is Phase 2.
Mine the phase* port batteries into the spec layer and delete them (their
behavior is now covered by spec): phase5 (hierarchies), phase6 (tagged
literals/reader-conditionals), phase7 (lazy/sets), phase8+phase12 (protocols;
phase12 was a duplicate of phase8), phase10 (strings/set), phase13
(reify/walk). Unique cases mined into spec: reader #inst/#uuid/#?@ splice,
(Type. args) dot constructor, lazy-seq body-runs-once, keywordize-keys/
stringify-keys, custom :default key and explicit :hierarchy dispatch.
phase6-final tested the COMPILE-MODE path ({:compile? true}), distinct from the
interpreter-based spec — kept and renamed integration/compile-mode-test.
jpm test green, conformance 218/218.
2026-06-05 01:07:09 -04:00
Renamed from test/integration/ports/phase6-final-test.janet (Browse further)
