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Coalton

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Coalton is an efficient, statically typed functional programming language that supercharges Common Lisp.

Coalton integrates directly into Common Lisp:

(in-package #:coalton-user)

(named-readtables:in-readtable coalton:coalton)

(coalton-toplevel
  ;; Define Coalton `Symbol`s as Lisp `cl:keyword`s.
  (repr :native cl:keyword)
  (define-type Symbol)

  ;; Bind a Lisp function into Coalton.
  (declare sym (String -> Symbol))
  (define (sym s)
    "Create a new symbol named `s`."
    (lisp Symbol (s)
      (cl:intern s "KEYWORD")))

  ;; Define equality of `Symbol` types using CL's `eq`.
  (define-instance (Eq Symbol)
    (define (== a b)
      (lisp Boolean (a b)
        (cl:eq a b))))

  ;; Define a new parametric algebraic data type for simple
  ;; mathematical expressions.
  (define-type (Expr :t)
    "A symbolic expression of basic arithmetic."
    (EConst :t)
    (EVar   Symbol)
    (E+     (Expr :t) (Expr :t))
    (E*     (Expr :t) (Expr :t)))

  ;; The classic `diff` function, in Coalton.
  (declare diff (Num :t => Symbol -> Expr :t -> Expr :t))
  (define (diff x f)
    "Compute the derivative of `f` with respect to `x`."
    (match f
      ((EConst _)                       ; c' = 0
       (EConst 0))
      ((EVar s)                         ; x' = 1
       (if (== s x) (EConst 1) (EConst 0)))
      ((E+ a b)                         ; (a+b)' = a' + b'
       (E+ (diff x a) (diff x b)))
      ((E* a b)                         ; (ab)' = a'b + ab'
       (E+ (E* (diff x a) b)
           (E* a          (diff x b))))))

  ;; We can use `t` just fine since Coalton doesn't import `cl:t`.
  (define t (sym "t"))

  (declare dt (Num :t => Expr :t -> Expr :t))
  (define dt
    "The time derivative operator."
    (diff t)))

It also works directly in the REPL:

CL-USER> (in-package #:coalton-user)
COALTON-USER> (coalton-toplevel
                (define (square x) (E* x x)))
; No value
COALTON-USER> (coalton (dt (E+ (square (EVar t)) (EConst 1))))
#.(E+ #.(E+ #.(E* #.(ECONST 1) #.(EVAR |t|))
            #.(E* #.(EVAR |t|) #.(ECONST 1)))
      #.(ECONST 0))

Type errors are discovered at compile-time, and errors are printed beautifully without sacrificing Common Lisp's interactive debugging facilities.

COALTON-USER> (coalton (dt (E+ (EConst 1/2) (EConst 0.5))))
error: Type mismatch
  --> <unknown>:1:30
   |
 1 |  (coalton (dt (E+ (EConst 1/2) (EConst 0.5))))
   |                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Expected type '(EXPR FRACTION)' but got type '(EXPR DOUBLE-FLOAT)'
   [Condition of type COALTON-IMPL/TYPECHECKER/BASE:TC-ERROR]

Restarts:
 0: [RETRY] Retry REPL evaluation request.
 1: [*ABORT] Return to top level.
 2: [ABORT] abort thread (#<THREAD "repl-thread" RUNNING {10013A8003}>)

Coalton is currently used in production to build quantum computing software.

Getting Started

Warning

Coalton has not reached "1.0" yet. This means that, from time to time, you may have a substandard user experience. While we try to be ANSI-conforming, Coalton is currently only tested on recent versions of SBCL, Allegro CL, and Clozure CL.

Coalton will not be in Quicklisp until it reaches its first stable version.

Prepare: Install SBCL (on macOS with Homebrew: brew install sbcl). Install Quicklisp by following instructions here. (The step command involving gpg is not needed.) After installing Quicklisp, you should have a quicklisp folder which will make installing Coalton easier.

Install: Clone this repository into a place your Lisp can see (e.g., ~/quicklisp/local-projects/).

Note

While Quicklisp will automatically ensure almost all of Coalton's dependencies, you will need to manually clone the newest versions of FSET and MISC-EXTENSIONS and add them to your ASDF/Quicklisp path (e.g., ~/quicklisp/local-projects/).

Use: Either run (ql:quickload :coalton), or add #:coalton to your ASD's :depends-on list.

Test: Compile the tests with (ql:quickload :coalton/tests), then run the tests with (asdf:test-system :coalton).

Note

Running the Coalton test suite on SBCL requires GNU MPFR in order to run Big-Float tests.

If you would like to run tests without installing gnu-mpfr, you can use Coalton's portable Big-Float implementation by running (pushnew :coalton-portable-bigfloat *features*) before loading Coalton.

Learn: Start with Intro to Coalton and the standard library reference, and then take a peek at the examples directory. It may also be helpful to check out the introductory blog post.

What's Here?

This repository contains the source code to the Coalton compiler, and the standard library.

It also contains a few example programs, such as:

Lastly and importantly, we maintain a collection of documentation about Coalton in the docs directory.

Get Involved

Want to ask a question about Coalton, propose a feature, or share a cool program you wrote? Try posting in the GitHub Discussions page!

We welcome contributions of all forms, especially as we stabilize toward a 1.0 release. We would be grateful to receive:

  • bug reports (filed as issues),
  • bug fixes and typo corrections (filed as pull requests),
  • small example programs, and
  • user experience troubles.