e58be2fbd2
#inst (jolt-rnh): an instant is an immutable tagged struct
{:jolt/type :jolt/inst :ms <epoch-millis>} — equality and map-key hashing by
INSTANT, so different offsets denoting the same moment are =. The reader
parses RFC3339 with Clojure's partial-timestamp defaults (#inst "2020" is
2020-01-01T00:00:00.000Z) and errors on malformed input; inst?/inst-ms in
the overlay; pr-str prints the canonical
#inst "yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ss.fff-00:00" and round-trips; str gives the bare
RFC3339 string. Self-evaluating in the evaluator (like uuid/chars).
Syntax-quote (jolt-l2a): a syntax-quoted self-evaluating literal (string,
number, boolean, nil, keyword, char) collapses to the literal at READ time,
matching Clojure's reader — so nested/adjacent backticks over literals are
inert: (= "meow" ```"meow") is true (jank pass-adjacent). Symbols still
qualify and collections still template. General nested syntax-quote over
non-literals remains UNVERIFIED in spec S25.
Tests: inst-spec (18 cases incl. partial defaults, offsets, round-trip),
+10 literal-collapse reader rows, +5 conformance rows (321x3). Spec
02-reader S20/S25 updated to normative. Suite stable 4470/86.
|
||
|---|---|---|
| .. | ||
| 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.