A LISP Interpreter that runs inside the browser

christoph · Post by **christoph** » Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:33 pm

Hello everyone,

I just released a project of mine which is an interpreter for a new LISP dialect that i created for this project, called WebLisp. The special thing about it is that it runs directly inside the browser. It's in JavaScript, any browser from IE6 upwards should be able to run it. Documentation for the language is also on the site.
Its intended purpose is purely educational.

Feel free to check it out at http://weblisp.net

Enjoy,
Christoph

schoppenhauer · Post by **schoppenhauer** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 2:13 am

Seems like something very interesting. It runs unter Firefox, too (i.e. not only "IE6 Upwards"). It is a little strange to run a Lisp inside a JavaScript, but on the other hand, at a time when office-suites become webinterfaces, maybe this is the only chance for lisp to survive

christoph · Post by **christoph** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 2:53 pm

Thanks for the feedback!

What I meant with the browser support is that it doesn't run in IE5, but in IE6 and up and also all other major, modern browsers (Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome) - anything that can run GWT-generated JavaScript.

Kompottkin · Post by **Kompottkin** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:30 am

What's there looks quite cool, but I can't find a macro facility. Lisp without macros is only half the fun. Are you planning to implement a macro system?

christoph · Post by **christoph** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 5:56 am

Macros are not supported right now.
However, they are on my TODO list.

schoppenhauer · Post by **schoppenhauer** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 5:59 pm

Have you any plans about what LISP-Dialect this one should become similar to yet?

christoph · Post by **christoph** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 3:39 pm

Well, the core-language is done for now and it should mostly be like Scheme. Differences are that Scheme has some additional features (like macros and continuations) and some keywords are named differently, e.g., "set!" is "set", "car" is "first", and "cdr" is "rest".

Library-wise, I will do something completely different. The base library will remain little for now, e.g., I have no intention to include file operations

.
Right now, I am working on a graphics library that will hopefully make for interesting applications.

Exolon · Post by **Exolon** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 4:18 pm

christoph wrote:The base library will remain little for now, e.g., I have no intention to include file operations .
Right now, I am working on a graphics library that will hopefully make for interesting applications.

What about image files then?

christoph · Post by **christoph** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:41 pm

Well, the graphics library will allow for drawing stuff onto a canvas. There will be no saving or loading of image files, however.

I want to enable linking to programs, though. And by linking to a program that draws some image, you sort of save and load that image

As a matter of fact I just uploaded a new version which supports very basic drawing functions. Clearing the screen and drawing black lines is all, as a matter of fact.
The rest can be derived anyhow

. Drawing in color could prove tough, though.

Check it out: http://weblisp.net

TheGZeus · Post by **TheGZeus** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 10:28 pm

You might want to look into how UCB LOGO does it's drawing.
It's a derivative of Lisp (it's sort of an M-Lisp) and can do some pretty cool stuff.

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A LISP Interpreter that runs inside the browser

A LISP Interpreter that runs inside the browser

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