817495dd51
*ns* is interned in clojure.core holding the current NAMESPACE OBJECT, kept in sync by ctx-set-current-ns through a var table cached on the env (one table put on the hot path; core-bench A/B neutral). A thread binding (binding [*ns* ...]) shadows the root through var-get as usual. in-ns now returns the namespace object (Clojure); str renders a namespace as its name and pr-str as #namespace[name]. The ns-designator helper accepts namespace objects (they are tagged STRUCTS — the old table?-based check never matched them), so (ns-aliases *ns*) / (ns-unalias *ns* 'a) work — SCI and the jank syntax-quote corpus use exactly that shape. Known divergence (documented): inside an interpreted fn, *ns* reflects the fn's defining ns (jolt's resolution model rebinds current-ns per call); top-level and load-time reads match Clojure. Gate green (conformance 326x3, suite 4572 >= 4540, all batteries, specs+unit +8 *ns* rows); bench neutral. |
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|---|---|---|
| .. | ||
| 00-front-matter.md | ||
| 02-reader.md | ||
| 03-special-forms.md | ||
| 09-core-library.md | ||
| coverage.md | ||
| README.md | ||
The Clojure Language Specification (Draft)
A normative, implementation-independent specification of the Clojure
language, developed alongside jolt's self-hosted compiler and validated by
its executable conformance suites. Why: Clojure has no spec — every
alternative implementation re-derives semantics from the reference
implementation and folklore. See the RFC for motivation, scope, evidence
sources, and process: ../rfc/0001-language-specification.md.
Documents
| Doc | Content | Status |
|---|---|---|
00-front-matter.md |
conformance terms, entry format, host classification | drafted |
01-evaluation.md … 08-macros.md |
see chapter plan in front matter | planned |
03-special-forms.md |
special-form catalog + normative exemplars (if, let*) |
exemplars |
09-core-library.md |
per-var entry format + exemplars (first, reduce, parse-uuid) |
exemplars |
coverage.md |
generated dashboard over the 694-var surface | generated |
Regenerate the dashboard after surface changes:
python3 tools/spec_coverage.py (requires clojuredocs-export.json in the
repo root and a working jolt checkout).
Current numbers (2026-06-10)
Of the 694 clojure.core vars in the ClojureDocs inventory:
- 380 implemented in jolt and exercised by the behavioral suites
- 154 implemented but not directly tested — each gets a test with its spec entry
- 35 portable but missing from jolt (
parse-long/parse-double/parse-boolean,update-keys/update-vals,macroexpand,time,partitionv/partitionv-all/splitv-at,with-redefs,with-open, reader fns, ns-introspection stragglers, …) — tracked as implementation gaps - 22 resolvable in code but invisible to ns introspection
(
resolve/ns-publicscan't see seed-fallback names likecompare,gensym,type) — a conformance finding in its own right - the rest classified host/JVM/concurrency (see dashboard)
How this connects to the test suites
test/integration/conformance-test.janet— 302 assertions, each run through three independent execution paths (interpreter, bootstrap compiler, self-hosted compiler) that must agree. Spec entries cite these.test/spec/*.janet— ~1,500 behavioral cases organized by topic.vendor/clojure-test-suite— the cross-dialect suite (≥4081 assertions passing); dialect splits there are classification evidence.- jank's per-construct corpus (
~/src/jank/compiler+runtime/test/jank) is the granularity model for §2/§3 conformance.
The invariant: every numbered normative statement names its conformance test, or is marked UNVERIFIED. The spec cannot drift from the implementations that check it.