jolt.passes is the new portable pipeline stage between the analyzer and the
back end: pure IR -> IR rewrites, total over node :ops (unknown ops pass
through with folded children), loaded with the compiler namespaces and
resolved lazily by analyze-form (JOLT_NO_IR_PASSES=1 disables — the same
escape-hatch pattern as the macro oracle). The shape is flatiron's opt.clj
applied to the jolt IR, which is what jolt-2om asked for.
The first pass is constant folding: a call of a foldable numeric SEED fn
(the later tiers don't exist when the compiler loads) whose args are all
constant numbers becomes a constant, and an if with a constant test becomes
the taken branch (dead-branch elimination — the untaken side never even
resolves). Folding computes with the ACTUAL jolt fns, so results match
runtime semantics by construction; a fold that would throw (mod 5 0) is
left for runtime.
Two walk lessons paid for in debugging: let/loop bindings are
[name init-ir] PAIRS, not maps (assoc'ing :init into a pair corrupts it);
and a throw inside the interpreted pass unwinds past the interpreter's ns
restores, so analyze-form restores the compile ns after the (protected)
pass call — without that, one pass error left current-ns in jolt.passes and
the rest of the tier compile resolved against the wrong namespace (sort-by
landed on the 2-arg JANET builtin).
ir-passes-test pins folds, conservatism (free vars, throwing folds), and
end-to-end eval. Gate exit 0.