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138 points todsacerdoti | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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bevr1337 ◴[] No.44380860[source]
Why was LISP not one of the first languages able to compile to WASM? I've been curious ever since the awesome WASM project started tracking different projects. They use emojis for progress and LISP has been a hatching egg.
replies(2): >>44381096 #>>44381862 #
dmkolobov ◴[] No.44381862[source]
If I had to guess:

1. lack of native GC, you had to roll your own by providing a runtime.

2. lack of tail-call elimination in V1 of the spec. This essentially forces you to trampoline everything.

replies(1): >>44382157 #
stassats ◴[] No.44382157[source]
> lack of tail-call elimination

But lisp doesn't need TCO.

replies(2): >>44383319 #>>44384522 #
1. bevr1337 ◴[] No.44383319{3}[source]
Whoa, what a surprising fact! I had not considered TCO in LISP was "nice to have." That's a good example where it's easy to hack but hard to make production ready.