read-char read the char name with symbol-char?, so a literal whose char isn't a
symbol char (\{, \(, \), \,, \%, …) came back as an empty name and errored
'Unsupported character'. Now a single non-symbol char after \ is taken as a
one-character literal of that char. Surfaced by funcool/cuerdas (uses \{), which
now loads. Spec cases added.
The Clojure stdlib namespaces (clojure.string/set/walk/edn/zip, jolt.http/
interop/shell/nrepl) were loaded cwd-relative, so the built binary couldn't
load them outside the repo. Now stdlib_embed slurps them all at build time into
a {ns -> source} map frozen in the image, and the loader falls back to it when a
namespace isn't found on disk. The artifact is self-contained — clojure.string
works from any directory.
Drops the one-off nREPL source embed (jolt.nrepl is covered by this now). The
baked-in stdlib is excluded from uberscript bundles since it's part of the
runtime. clojure.core is unchanged (Janet, auto-referred).
Test: embedded-stdlib-test requires from the embedded copy with FS roots cleared.
Phase 3 — bundling. `jolt uberscript OUT -m NS` requires NS, uses the loader's
recorded load order (a dep finishes loading before its requirer, so it's
topological) to concatenate the used namespaces into one .clj that runs on a
plain jolt with no deps/jpm. `jolt-deps uberscript` resolves first. The loader
records loaded file paths when ctx env has :loaded-files.
Phase 4 — conformance. deps-conformance-test resolves real pure-cljc git libs
and reports load/run status, gated behind JOLT_CONFORMANCE so CI stays offline.
First run: medley works; cuerdas hits a reader gap (filed); stuartsierra/
dependency uses Long/MAX_VALUE (JVM interop, out of scope).
Tests: uberscript-test, deps-conformance-test (skips without the flag).
Clean up the .nrepl-port file when the server stops — via defer on a clean
unwind and SIGINT/SIGTERM handlers for Ctrl-C. A SIGKILL still can't be caught,
so it may occasionally be left behind.
Add --version/version, -e/--eval, -f/--file, -m/--main (require NS and apply
its -main to *command-line-args*), and nrepl-server/--nrepl-server taking an
optional [host:]port (nrepl stays an alias). repl/help/-h round it out.
Also rewrite doc/tools-deps.md as design notes for the now-implemented deps
support (it still read as pre-implementation research), and note the new flags
in the README. Test: cli-test runs the flags from source.
Move build details, JOLT_PATH/namespace resolution, and the jolt-deps/deps.edn
usage into doc/building-and-deps.md instead of growing the README; README Build
now links to it.
The deps tests built temp paths from $TMPDIR, which isn't set on the CI
runners — deps-resolve-test then tried to mkdir at the filesystem root and
failed. Default to /tmp.
A separate jolt-deps executable (mirroring jpm beside janet) resolves a
deps.edn into source roots and runs jolt with them on JOLT_PATH; the runtime
stays deps-agnostic.
- src/jolt/deps.janet: read deps.edn (Janet parses it directly), resolve
:git/* and :local/root via jpm/pm's download-bundle (git fetch + cache, no
build), recurse for transitive deps, return de-duped roots. jpm loaded
lazily so it's never embedded. Roots cached on a deps.edn hash.
- src/jolt/deps_cli.janet + project.janet: the jolt-deps tool — path/run/repl/-e.
- main: apply JOLT_PATH at runtime (the CLI ctx is frozen into the image at
build, so init's env read wouldn't see it).
Verified end to end against a local dep and a real git dep (medley). git only,
pure clj/cljc. Test: deps-resolve-test (local deps, no network).
The loader resolved a namespace against one hardcoded root (src/jolt, .clj
only). Now it searches an ordered list (ctx env :source-paths, stdlib first)
and tries .clj then .cljc. init adds roots from the :paths opt and JOLT_PATH.
This is the foundation for loading deps.edn libraries; verified loading medley
from an added root. No change to stdlib loading (3913 suite baseline held).
Drop Maven. Verified the piggyback: jpm's download-bundle clones a git dep
into its cache without building (the build half, bundle-install, needs a
project.janet and is separable). Plan is git resolution via jpm/pm, a loader
that searches the clones' src dirs, and compiling used namespaces into the
image at build. Pure clj/cljc only.
Findings and a phased plan for consuming deps.edn so projects can require
real Clojure libraries. Jolt already reads EDN, jars ship .clj/.cljc source,
and a real lib (medley) loads and runs. The gaps are a single-rooted loader
(needs a classpath + .cljc) and dependency resolution. Recommends reusing
'clojure -Spath' to start, then native git-dep resolution; jpm stays the
Janet build tool alongside this. See doc/tools-deps.md.
- core: pr-render/str-render now render a Jolt var as #'ns/name instead of
falling through to the generic table printer, which recursed into the var's
cyclic :meta/:ns refs and looped forever. Adds name-of/var-display helpers.
- jolt.nrepl: capture the post-eval namespace *after* running the form — jolt
evaluates map-literal values right-to-left, so {:val (eval form) :ns (the-ns)}
read the ns before in-ns ran, pinning every session to 'user'. Now in-ns/ns
switches persist across evals. render-value dropped: pr-str handles vars.
- specs: var printing (strings-spec) and nREPL in-ns/ns-persistence + explicit
:ns override (nrepl-test).
- host-interop-spec: add an 'interop / janet bridge' suite — janet/<name> and
janet.<module>/<name> resolution, the value-representation boundary (a Jolt
vector crosses as a Janet table), explicit-only (unprefixed module not
exposed), and unknown-symbol errors.
- nrepl-test: assert a def's value renders as #'ns/name (pr-str loops on a
var's cyclic ns refs, so jolt.nrepl renders vars itself).
Add a general Janet interop bridge and an nREPL implemented on top of it.
Interop bridge (evaluator):
- A qualified symbol whose namespace is `janet` or `janet.<module>` resolves
against Janet's environment: `janet/<name>` -> root binding (janet/slurp),
`janet.<module>/<name>` -> module binding (janet.net/server, janet.os/clock).
The explicit `janet` segment marks every crossing into host code (where
Clojure semantics, e.g. collection representation, no longer hold). This makes
the whole Janet stdlib — networking included — reachable from Clojure.
jolt.nrepl (Clojure, src/jolt/jolt/nrepl.clj):
- bencode codec (encode + streaming decode), ported from nrepl.bencode.
- server: accept loop via janet.net/accept + janet.ev/call (Janet's built-in
handler arity-checks Jolt closures, so we drive accept ourselves); ops clone/
describe/eval/load-file/close/ls-sessions/interrupt/eldoc following
babashka.nrepl response shapes. eval captures *out* by rebinding Janet's :out,
reports ns, streams out, and isolates the eval namespace (current-ns is global
ctx state) restoring it afterward. Vars are rendered as #'ns/name (pr-str
loops on a var's cyclic ns refs).
- client: connect / request / client-eval / client-clone / client-close.
CLI: `jolt nrepl [port]` starts the server and writes .nrepl-port; the Clojure
source is embedded at build time so the binary is self-contained from any cwd.
Tests: test/spec/nrepl-spec.janet (bencode), test/integration/nrepl-test.janet
(server+client over a real TCP/bencode wire, server in a subprocess).
- Add tests workflow status badge.
- Replace the stale 'Janet >= 1.36' line: futures/core.async use threaded ev/
channels; developed and CI-tested against 1.41.
- Note that jpm build can serve a stale build/jolt (use jpm clean) while jpm
test runs from source.
Implement clojure.core futures backed by Janet's ev/thread for genuine
parallelism (CPU-bound work can use a second core, unlike cooperative go
blocks):
- future / future-call, deref + (deref f timeout-ms timeout-val), future?,
future-done?, future-cancel, future-cancelled?; realized? on futures.
- A worker OS thread computes and marshals back a [:ok v]/[:error e] result
over a thread-chan; a parent-side collector fiber caches it and closes a
broadcast latch so any number of deref-ers unpark.
- Snapshot semantics: separate heaps mean the body + captured state are copied
to the worker and only the result is copied back (mutating a captured atom
does not propagate). Documented in README.
- future-cancel can't interrupt a Janet OS thread, so it marks the future
cancelled/done (deref throws, predicates flip) while the worker runs out.
clojure-test-suite baseline 3915 -> 3913: implementing future unskips
realized_qmark.cljc's (when-var-exists future ...) block, which depends on
JVM Thread/sleep + real thread interruption jolt can't provide; deref then
re-raises the unresolved-Thread/sleep error. Documented at the baseline.
Spec: test/spec/futures-spec.janet (18 cases).
bootstrap-test.janet slurped a hardcoded /Users/yogthos/src/sci path (a
personal SCI clone, not vendor/sci) and had no assertions — a dev scratch
file that fails anywhere but the author's machine. SCI loading is already
covered by sci-bootstrap-test/sci-runtime-test against the vendored
submodule.
bootstrap.janet resolves jpm/cli.janet relative to cwd, so it must run
from /tmp/jpm rather than the repo root (fixes 'could not find file
jpm/cli.janet').
- .github/workflows/tests.yml: build Janet (cached) + jpm, init vendor/sci
submodule, run jpm test on every push and PR.
- README: explain the per-form eval router — interpreted (default) vs
compiled (:compile?), the always-interpret carve-out, and shared context.
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.
Remove agent/dev tooling and scratch files that aren't part of the published
project:
- .beads/ (issue tracker) and .clj-kondo/ (linter cache) — now gitignored
- AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, PLAN.md (agent/planning docs)
- root scratch scripts: fix-core.janet, preprocess.janet, and the loose
test-*.janet probes (the real tests live under test/)
- clojure-features.clj — its features are already covered by
test/integration/features-test.janet (dropped the optional smoke-test block)
The repo now tracks only: src/ (interpreter + clojure.core.async + stdlib),
test/ (spec/integration/unit), doc/grammar.ebnf, README, LICENSE, project.janet,
and the vendor/sci submodule. jpm test green.
(chan n xform) applies a transducer on the put side: a jolt transducer is a
directly-callable closure, composed over a reducing fn whose step gives each
output value into the channel (honoring its buffer kind). One put may yield zero
or more values; a reduced result (e.g. from take) closes the channel; close!
runs the transducer completion arity to flush stateful remainders. Works with
map/filter/mapcat/take/comp/etc.
Buffers: (buffer n) fixed, (dropping-buffer n) drops new values when full,
(sliding-buffer n) drops the oldest. Implemented via a non-blocking give —
(ev/select [ch v] closed-chan) detects a full buffer without parking.
harness: run-spec flushes per suite. spec: core.async/channel-transducers (5),
core.async/buffers (3). jpm test green.
Note: distinct/dedupe/partition-all/partition-by still lack a 0-coll transducer
arity in core (separate gap), so they can't yet be used as channel xforms.
Jolt's dynamic-var binding stack was a single global array, so concurrent go
blocks interleaved each other's bindings and a go block didn't see the bindings
in effect when it was spawned.
Move the binding stack into Janet's fiber-local dyn (:jolt/binding-stack): each
fiber (go block) lazily gets its own array, so bindings can't interleave. Janet
ev/go fibers inherit the parent's dyn, but go-spawn now snapshots the binding
stack at spawn time and installs a private copy in the new fiber — Clojure
binding conveyance. A go block's own (binding ...) shadows the conveyed frame.
types.janet: cur-binding-stack / snapshot-bindings / install-bindings; var-get/
var-set/push/pop use the fiber-local stack. async.janet: go-spawn conveys.
spec: core.async/binding-conveyance (4 cases — conveyance, isolation, no leak to
root, inner shadowing). jpm test green.
Janet fibers are stackful coroutines, so a go block is just its body run in a
fiber that parks on channel ops by yielding to the event loop — the interpreter
call stack rides along, no CPS/state-machine transform. So <!/>! work anywhere
(inside try, nested fns, loops), unlike Clojure's go macro.
src/jolt/async.janet implements chan/chan?/close!/<!/>!/<!!/>!!/go/go-loop/
thread/alts!/timeout/put!/take! over ev/ channels and fibers, installed as the
clojure.core.async namespace (pre-populated in init, so require finds it).
A channel is a pair of ev/chans (:ch values + :done close-signal); a take is
(ev/select :ch :done), which drains buffered values before the close signal —
giving Clojure's drain-then-nil semantics without the buffer loss of
ev/chan-close, and with no leaked fibers (close! just closes :done).
Single-threaded cooperative scheduling: <! (park) and <!! (block) coincide.
Dynamic-var conveyance (Phase 2) and channel transducers (Phase 3) are TODO.
spec: test/spec/core-async-spec (16 cases — go/channels, buffering+close,
go-loop pipelines, alts!/timeout, parking inside try/nested-fn). jpm test green.
- grammar.ebnf: rewrite the number rule to cover the literal syntaxes the reader
now accepts — 0x/0X hex, N (bigint) / M (bigdec) suffixes, ratios a/b, radixed
integers (NrXXX, base 2..36), exponents, and the ##Inf/##-Inf/##NaN symbolic
floats — noting Jolt reads them as plain Janet numbers.
- README: Numbers bullet notes the literal syntaxes read; conformance count.
- reader-syntax-spec: drop the stale 'ratio not supported' case; add coverage
for hex-uppercase/N/M/ratio/radix/exponent/##Inf/##NaN.
- PLAN.md: refresh the stale Current State snapshot for the 3-layer test
structure (spec/integration/unit), ~3,920 suite assertions, 218/218
conformance, current source size.
jpm test green.
- A map entry is a 2-element tuple (Jolt produces tuples only from map iteration;
vector literals are pvecs, lists are arrays). key/val/map-entry? now accept a
2-tuple and reject a plain vector, matching Clojure's MapEntry-vs-vector
distinction — no metadata needed, the representations already differ.
- min-key/max-key reproduce Clojure's NaN-aware folding (2-arg strict </>, then
<=/>=) and require numeric keys (NaN allowed, strings throw).
- subvec coerces float/NaN indices like (int ...) (truncate, NaN->0) then
bounds-checks, instead of throwing on non-integers.
min_key 35/14 -> 49/0 (clean); key/val recover the 2-vector cases; subvec floats
fixed. clojure-test-suite pass 3898->3921. Updated conformance-test (key/val now
needs a real entry). spec: map/map-entry-&-key-ordering (14). jpm test green.
Strictness work brought the suite to ~3900 passing; the leniency divergence is
largely gone. Remaining failures are bignum/ratio/bigdec, integer/float
identity, 64-bit/Unicode, eager-vector seqs, and the map-entry-as-2-vector case.
- subs requires a string and validates 0<=start<=end<=count (no Janet
from-end/clamping); negative/out-of-range/nil indices throw
- assoc! on a transient vector bounds-checks the index (0..count)
subs 11-fail -> 24/5 (5 remaining are byte-vs-codepoint Unicode, platform);
assoc_bang 32/6 -> 35/3. clojure-test-suite pass 3889->3898.
spec: string/subs-strictness (7), transient/assoc!-bounds (4). jpm test green.
merge now throws when a non-first arg is a scalar, a set, a list, or a
wrong-length vector (a length-2 vector or a map still merge). Other map-like
tables (records/sorted-maps/host tables, e.g. SCI's namespaces) keep the lenient
conj path so the SCI bootstrap still loads.
merge 29/11/2 -> 35/3/4. clojure-test-suite pass 3874->3880.
spec: 5 merge strictness cases. jpm test green.
- first throws on scalars (numbers/keywords/booleans/char & symbol structs)
- rseq is vector/sorted-only (throws on strings/maps/numbers/seqs)
- assoc requires an even kv count and a map/vector/nil receiver
first clean; rseq 12/1; assoc 39/3. clojure-test-suite pass 3864->3874.
spec: seq/more-strictness (11). jpm test green.
- assoc on a vector bounds-checks the index (0..count); out-of-range/negative throw
- dissoc throws on non-maps (numbers/sequences/sets/scalars); nil ok; records/
sorted-maps/meta-maps still handled
- count throws on scalars (numbers/keywords/symbols/booleans/chars)
- subvec validates vector type and 0<=start<=end<=count
- numerator/denominator always throw (Jolt has no ratio type)
- min-key/max-key throw on no values
count 18/2; dissoc 19/3; assoc 36/6; subvec 26/3/5; numerator/denominator throw
cases pass. clojure-test-suite pass 3840->3864. spec: map/strictness (16). jpm test green.
- peek/pop are stack-only (vectors/lists): throw on sets/maps/strings/scalars,
and pop throws on an empty vector/list
- vec throws on non-seqable args (numbers/keywords/transients)
- key/val require a map entry (2-element vector); throw on nil/numbers/maps/sets
pop clean; peek 9/2; vec 17/2/1; key/val 12/2/1 (remaining are the
2-vector-vs-MapEntry / tuple-from-seq divergences). pass 3824->3840.
spec: seq/accessor-strictness (16). jpm test green.
conj!/assoc!/dissoc!/disj!/pop!/persistent! now throw on a non-transient (or
wrong transient kind) instead of falling back to the persistent op, matching
Clojure. conj! keeps its special arities: (conj!) -> (transient []), (conj! coll)
-> coll. conj! onto a transient map accepts a [k v] pair or a map (merge), and
throws on a list/set/seq.
pop_bang/dissoc_bang clean; conj_bang 13/1/22->47/3/1; persistent_bang 9/8->16/1.
clojure-test-suite pass 3781->3824. spec: transient/strictness (10). jpm test green.
