Autology: Writing a self-rewriting Lisp - Dave Kimber | Lambda Days 2025

✨ This talk was recorded at Lambda Days in June 2025. If you're curious about our upcoming event, check https://lambdadays.org ✨ Autology: Writing a self-rewriting Lisp In Lisp, code is data. In a meta-circular Lisp, the interpreter is written in Lisp, so it too is just data. By granting a Lisp the ability to modify the data of its own interpreter we can create a language that has the ability to dynamically rewrite its own implementation at will, adding or removing language features or even transforming it entirely. Working in Clojure we'll begin by covering the basics of Lisp interpretation and demonstrate how surprisingly simple a minimal Lisp interpreter can be. We'll then explore the ways that small changes to this interpreter can profoundly affect the language itself. Finally we'll introduce Autology, a pure functional Lisp with the ability to modify its own interpreter, and the unique and powerful form of dynamic metaprogramming this unlocks. From modifying argument evaluation to writing a custom debugger, to executing raw inlined C code, the possibilities are deep and far-reaching. Let's keep in touch! Follow us on: 💥BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/lambdadays.b... 💥LinkedIn:   / lambda-days   💥Facebook:   / lambdadays   💥Mastodon: https://genserver.social/codesync 💥Twitter:   / lambdadays