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Ask PG: Will Arc ever be meta-circular?
7 points by Xichekolas 6120 days ago | 4 comments
Not entirely sure if that is the correct term for it, but I was just wondering if Arc can/will be able to compile/build itself. I remember my favorite part of learning Scheme was when I got my scheme evaluator (written in scheme) to evaluate itself. In Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs they called this a meta-circular evaluator.

Not like this is really a requirement. I just ask from a purely nerdy curiosity.



8 points by pg 6119 days ago | link

Good question. The version before this was. It was horribly slow. I had an ambitious plan to have that remain the language definition, and basically write something that would translate it into a compiler. But the slowness of the language meant that I never used it for applications, which meant I cared less about whether that project got done, which in turn meant it was looking like it would take forever.

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1 point by icemaze 6119 days ago | link

I don't think we want that at this point. Every change in the language would require porting the language itself to its new version and a lot of effort could be potentially wasted this way. Later, maybe.

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1 point by etfb 6120 days ago | link

I think it'll need a Foreign Function Interface to be fully self-hosted. Once it has that, it should be possible to do absolutely everything. I'd be interested to see PG's take on the perfect Arc-ish FFI system.

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1 point by elibarzilay 6119 days ago | link

It will need much, much more than just an FFI to compile itself.

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