Author: John Jacobsen, NPX Designs, Inc. john@mail.npxdesigns.com

Started: December, 2011

This project consists of the very first steps of an implementation of
the Clojure language in Python.  At the moment it is merely interpreted
and does very little (see file test_lisp.py for examples).  I probably
shouldn't even call it PyClojure at this point, but the name at least
serves to indicate my intentions....

DEPENDENCIES

- PLY [1] (for lexing and parsing)
- Nose [2] (to run unit tests)
- Python 2.6+

WHY DO THIS?

The long JVM startup time makes use of Clojure for scripting common
system tasks somewhat unworkable, or at least irritating.  NewLISP[3]
would be an option, but this particular implementation is meant to
eventually be syntax-compatible with Clojure (as currently implemented 
on the JVM).  The goal is to provide a real Lisp with macros, and Clojure's
syntactic goodness, as well as immutable data structures, which can 
coexist with Python and make use of its extensive, 'batteries included'
libraries.

There has been some discussion[4] as well about getting Clojure running
under PyPy, something which I think would be quite interesting.

Feel free to join in!

DONE

- Parsing and storage of trees of lists, vectors, atoms, and integers
- 'def' and simple evaluation
- A few builtin functions

NEXT STEPS

- Strings
- Sets
- Lambda / fn / (# ...)
- Python interop
- Macros
- Quote (do w/ macro...?)
- loop/recur
- Defn
- Namespaces
- Real immutable, persistent data structures (currently Python lists are used)
- setup.py packaging
- ...


[1] http://www.dabeaz.com/ply/.  It turns out Python is actually quite serviceable
    for writing compilers, particularly for prototyping, and I'm curious how far
    one can push this.
[2] http://readthedocs.org/docs/nose/en/latest/
[3] http://www.newlisp.org/
[4] http://groups.google.com/group/clojure/browse_thread/thread/d910983a4c9ed3f5