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Back to [[conference:committee:2014-proposals]]\\
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**Title**: Greenspun - A Lisp Extension Library for Go\\
**Proposer**: [[2014:Eleanor McHugh]]\\
**Type**: Case-Study\\
**Duration**: 90 mins\\
**Description**: \\
Greenspun [http://github.com/feyeleanor/greenspun] is a lightweight
implementation of Lisp written in Go and intended for use as an
application extension language. It features a byte code virtual machine
based on the SECD architecture and a DSL for performing Lisp-like data
manipulations in core application logic.\\
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During the course of this session we'll explore three main topics through
the design and implementation of the Greenspun system.\\
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Firstly we'll take a deep dive into the Go programming language, with
particular emphasis on its type system and compositional approach to object
orientation as well as it's first-class support for concurrency. We'll
introduce Go's testing and benchmarking system as an essential tool for
day-to-day development.\\
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Next we'll look at the implementation of a traditional SECD virtual machine
in Go, a popular model for executing programs in functional languages. The
core of the SECD architecture is a set of four registers (Stack, Environment,
Control and Dump) referencing singly-linked lists and a byte code with ten
instructions which we'll study in detail along with the compiler for
translating Lisp s-expressions into byte code.\\
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We'll conclude the session by exploring modifications to the SECD
architecture which support Go's user-defined types, concurrent execution,
tail call elimination, wrapping system calls and general performance
enhancements.\\
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By the end of the session attendees should be comfortable reading Go source
code, have a basic feel for developing with the language and the necessary
background to write their own Lisp implementation.\\
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