I posted about this also on linkedIn. I actually tried to do a bunch of agentic coding in Clojure but found that the parser really got in my way - it continuously fooled the LLM on what line number the errors actually occurred on!
This is why I made nanolang always report line numbers accurately and also have a built-in "trace mode" where, with an environment variable set, it would tell you exactly what line number was producing which C code and which behaviors were being exhibited (state changes). The LLM uses this aggressively for debugging!
> it would tell you exactly what line number was producing which C code and which behaviors were being exhibited (state changes)
Would you consider generating sourcemaps? Although they’re mainly used for minified JavaScript they sound like a perfect fit for this use case. Plus they’re so ubiquitous there’s already a ton of tooling that understands them.
This absolutely was NOT needed, just to be clear, it was just fun to do and, perhaps more importantly, it taught me a lot in the process of making it.
I also have a few geometric 3D printed objects on my desk that I made with openscad as "printing challenges" and then beat my head against my 3D printers for hours trying to actually print them. They did not need to be printed, they serve no purpose other than to be aesthetically pleasing and educational. :)
1. Nanolang is a total thought experiment. The key word its description is "experimental" - whether it's a Good experiment or a Bad experiment can be argued either way, especially by language purists!
2. Yes, it's a total Decorator Crab of a language. An unholy creation by Dr Frankenstein, yes! Those criticisms are entirely merited. It wasn't designed, it accreted features and was a fever dream I couldn't seem to stop having. I should probably take my own temperature.
3. I like prefix notation because my first calculator was an HP calculator (the HP 41C remains, to this day, my favorite calculator of ALL TIME). I won't apologize for that, but I DO get that it's not everybody's cup of tea! I do, however, use both vi and emacs now.
Umm. I think that about covers it. All of this LLM stuff is still incredibly young to me and I'm just firing a shotgun into the dark and listening to hear if I hit anything. It's going to be that way for a while for all of us until we figure out what works and what does not!
This is why I made nanolang always report line numbers accurately and also have a built-in "trace mode" where, with an environment variable set, it would tell you exactly what line number was producing which C code and which behaviors were being exhibited (state changes). The LLM uses this aggressively for debugging!