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Cl-kawa: Scheme on Java on Common Lisp

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Common Lisp / Kawa Scheme interop via OpenLDK.

Kawa Scheme, created by Per Bothner, compiles Scheme code to Java bytecode and runs on the JVM. OpenLDK is a JVM implemented in Common Lisp; it transpiles Java bytecode to Common Lisp code. In SBCL, that Common Lisp code is then compiled to native assembly. Since both share the same SBCL process and heap, cl-kawa enables deep interoperability between Common Lisp and Scheme with no serialization or process boundaries.

Project status: technology demonstration. Not a performant or production ready implementation.

What you can do

Evaluate Scheme from Common Lisp (strings or s-expressions).

Call Scheme procedures from Common Lisp.

Register Common Lisp functions and call them from Scheme.

Exchange basic values (numbers, strings, booleans, lists) across the boundary.

Prerequisites

SBCL

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