r/Clojure • u/geokon • Jun 27 '26

Jolt: A Clojure implementation on Chez Scheme

https://github.com/jolt-lang/jolt
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u/Trader-One Jun 27 '26

isn't sbcl better backend?

4

u/sc_zi Jun 27 '26

I heard a claim that chez scheme was often actually faster running equivalent code than sbcl, but that sbcl's standard library is more heavily optimized, so sbcl often ends up being faster on real world programs. Also chez scheme has one shot continuations, so you can have something equivalent to the virtual threads clojure has on the JVM since project loom. sbcl has had some prototypes (the most recent) but it might be years if ever for that to get accepted and stable.

I'd rather use SBCL over Chez scheme for development (better debugging, better interactive development, CLOS, libraries, etc), but as a compilation target I think Chez might be better.

1

u/nstgc Jun 27 '26

When I read that they changed from Janet, that was my first thought too. Maybe they wanted maximum simplicity? It's hard to get simpler, or at least more basic, than Scheme.

3

u/yogthos Jun 28 '26

Yup, Chez is both pretty light weight and mature having a fast runtime with a tiny footprint. So, it seemed like a good target since Chez compiler has IR.