jolt/host/chez/seed
Yogthos 5a9acd3cf4 Numeric return-type hints: ^double/^long on a defn (round 3)
A ^double/^long return hint on a fn's name now (a) coerces the fn's value on the
way out — exact->inexact / jolt->fx, like a JVM primitive return — and (b) types a
call to it, so an accumulator over the result specializes:

  (defn ^double work [^double x ^double y] (+ (* x x) (* y y)))
  (loop [acc 0.0] (recur (+ acc (work a b))))   ; (+ acc (work ..)) -> fl+

The analyzer pushes the name's numeric tag onto each arity (:ret-nhint) for the
back-end coercion, and resolve-global surfaces the callee's declared return
(:num-ret, read from var meta) onto the :var node so jolt.passes.numeric types the
call. defn carries the name hint through.

This unblocks the accumulator-over-fn-result pattern that round 2 had to demote.
The win is bounded by call overhead in an open/dispatched build (~1.15x on a hot
loop whose body is a helper call); it compounds with direct-linking and, later,
inlining. A numeric return hint is a contract, like ^long — redefining the var to
return another type in an open build breaks it.

Not yet: per-arity arglist return hints, (defn f (^double [x] ..)). Gate:
test/chez/numeric-test.ss 39/39; full make test green, 0 new corpus divergences.
2026-06-23 17:21:53 -04:00
..
image.ss Numeric return-type hints: ^double/^long on a defn (round 3) 2026-06-23 17:21:53 -04:00
prelude.ss Split 20-coll.clj into three collection-tier files 2026-06-23 02:06:24 -04:00
README.md Docs: Chez-only, drop the Janet-era references and obsolete migration notes 2026-06-22 09:05:35 -04:00

Chez bootstrap seed

These two files are the bootstrap compiler for jolt — the seed that makes the build self-hosting:

  • prelude.ss — the clojure.core prelude (all tiers + clojure.string/walk/ template/edn/set/pprint) as Scheme def-var! forms.
  • image.ss — the compiler image (jolt.ir + jolt.analyzer + jolt.backend-scheme) as Scheme def-var! forms.

Both are generated, not hand-written. They are checked in because a fresh checkout must be able to build jolt-on-Chez using only Chez: host/chez/bootstrap.ss loads this seed, then rebuilds the prelude + image from the .clj/.ss sources via the on-Chez compiler (read → analyze → emit, all on Chez). The seed is a joint byte-fixpoint: rebuilding from an up-to-date seed reproduces it exactly. make selfhost (host/chez/selfcheck.sh) runs host/chez/bootstrap.ss and diffs the rebuilt artifacts against the checked-in seed.

Re-minting

When the seed sources change (the core tiers, the compiler namespaces, the host contract, the reader, emit-image.ss), the seed drifts and make selfhost fails. Re-mint it by running host/chez/bootstrap.ss and writing the freshly rebuilt prelude/image back to host/chez/seed/prelude.ss / host/chez/seed/image.ss, then commit the refreshed files.