Is a statically-typed full Lisp variant possible?

programming-languages lisp static-typing
Lambda the Penultimate picture Lambda the Penultimate · Jul 24, 2010 · Viewed 25.4k times · Source

Is a statically-typed full Lisp variant possible? Does it even make sense for something like this to exist? I believe one of a Lisp language's virtues is the simplicity of its definition. Would static typing compromise this core principle?

Answer

Eli Barzilay picture Eli Barzilay · Jul 24, 2010

Yes, it's very possible, although a standard HM-style type system is usually the wrong choice for most idiomatic Lisp/Scheme code. See Typed Racket for a recent language that is a "Full Lisp" (more like Scheme, actually) with static typing.

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