scan_string() is the right gate for this: every El source that embeds JS
or CSS does so as a quoted string literal, and the lexer is the single
chokepoint every backend reads. Strip there and the // line comments
and /* */ block comments never reach the parser, codegen, or the served
HTML.
looks_like_code is intentionally narrow:
- contains "<script" or "<style" (the embedded-asset case), or
- contains "function" AND ";" (a JS body without an opening tag)
Plain prose with stray // sequences passes through verbatim.
strip_code_comments tracks JS string state (single, double, backtick)
and never strips inside one. Backslash escapes inside JS strings consume
the next char verbatim. URL guard: when the char before / is ':', emit
the / literally and advance one — preserves https:// inside string
literals. Block-comment scan walks until the matching '*/' pair.
elc-cli.el is now a one-line `import "el-compiler/src/compiler.el"`
shim. Top-level `let _argv = args()` was clashing with C int main()'s
`char** _argv` parameter once compiler.el's fn main() body got folded
into C main. compiler.el owns the CLI entry point now.
Self-host fixed point reached: gen2 == gen3 byte-identical.
Tagged dist/platform/elc.20260502-1104-self-host alongside dist/platform/elc.
Capability becomes a compile-time structural property, not a runtime
convention. A program's top-level block determines what runtime
primitives it may call; the codegen rejects forbidden calls with
#error directives so cc fails with a clear message.
Three kinds:
cgi — full self-formation. All primitives.
service — bounded. Cannot call self-formation primitives:
llm_call_agentic, llm_register_tool, dharma_emit,
dharma_field. Single-turn LLM calls allowed.
utility — default (no top-level block). No DHARMA, no LLM.
Pure compute + I/O.
Deep claim: the binary either CAN or CANNOT do a thing. There is no
runtime check, no opt-in, no override. A weather service compiled
with `service { ... }` is structurally incapable of becoming Neuron.
Sponsors of services know exactly what they're vouching for.
Implementation
- Lexer: `service` keyword.
- Parser: parse_service_block parallels parse_cgi_block. Produces
ServiceBlock AST with name/sponsor/domain.
- Codegen entry: scans top-level for cgi/service blocks, sets
__program_kind state ("cgi" / "service" / "utility"). Rejects
programs declaring both kinds.
- cg_expr Call: cap_check_call(fn_name) per emission. Records
violations in __cap_violations CSV. emit_cap_violations() writes
one #error per violation at end of generated C.
- Helpers: is_self_formation_call, is_dharma_call, is_llm_call.
Tests verified:
cgi + llm_call_agentic → compiles ✓
service + llm_call_agentic → cc fails with capability violation
for 'service' on 'llm_call_agentic'
service + llm_call (1-turn) → compiles ✓
utility + dharma_send → cc fails with capability violation
for 'utility' on 'dharma_send'
utility + http/json/state → compiles + runs ✓ ("got: world")
cgi + dharma_emit (manager) → compiles ✓ (VBD also enforced)
cgi + dharma_emit (engine) → cc fails with VBD violation
Three-stage closure: stage1.c == stage2.c (byte-identical).
Engram rebuilt against new compiler — daemon on :8742 healthy,
{"node_count":0,"edge_count":0}.
A bug found and fixed during testing: cap_record_violation had
`csv = ","` (bare assignment, not valid in El) instead of
`let csv = ","`. Without the let, the leading comma never made
it into the accumulator, off-by-one'ing the kind extraction so
"service" appeared as "ervice" in error messages. Pattern
fixed; this confirms once more that El requires `let X = ...`
for all rebindings (codegen converts to assignment when X is
already declared).
Today's milestone: dist/platform/elc compiles itself byte-for-byte to
itself (stage1 == stage2 == stage3 verified). The compiler is now a
real binary in the world.
What landed
- Spec rewrite (language.md) to truth — every feature marked
implemented / planned / not-in-this-language with no fiction.
- C runtime extension: 51 new builtins. JSON parser + accessors,
time, UUID, env, in-process state K/V, float formatting + math,
string ops (index_of, split, char_at, char_code, pad_left/right,
format), list ops (push, push_front, join, range), bool_to_str.
Runtime grew 631 → 1611 lines, header 171 → 247.
- Codegen fix: transform_implicit_return lifts a function's bare
trailing expression into an explicit return. Without it, lex(),
parse(), and every other implicit-return function returned 0/nil
and the whole pipeline produced empty C output.
- Codegen fix: index expressions dispatch on AST kind. obj["literal"]
→ el_get_field (map), arr[i] → el_list_get (list). Same Index node
in the parser, two different runtime calls.
- Codegen fix: skip emitting fn main() (collides with C main()) and
honor parsed return-type annotations so Void functions don't get
return-wrapped (return println(x) is a C type error).
- Parser: capture return-type identifier from -> Ret annotations.
- Lexer: + vessel keyword, + % operator, + \r escape.
- Runtime fix: el_list_append now allocates a fresh list rather than
realloc'ing the input. Realloc moved blocks made caller pointers
dangle, which was inserting garbage values into declared lists and
causing strcmp segfaults. Persistent allocation eliminates the
whole class of use-after-free at modest memory cost.
Bootstrap path
- One-shot Python helper translated elc-combined.el to C and
produced stage1. Helper is disposable; not committed.
- stage1 compiles elc-combined.el → stage2.c which cc compiles to
stage2; stage2 compiles elc-combined.el → stage3.c. stage2.c and
stage3.c are byte-identical. Closure proven.
- New elc installed at dist/platform/elc; old broken binary
preserved as dist/platform/elc.legacy.
- dist/platform/elc.c is the canonical generated source.
- elvm and the bytecode pipeline are no longer on the critical path.
Known gap
- The `+` operator's heuristic dispatch still picks string concat
when both operands are Idents with no literal anchor. Self-hosting
works because the compiler source is careful, but `fn add(a:Int,
b:Int) { a + b }` will not do arithmetic until codegen reads the
parsed type annotations to dispatch. Fix is wiring; not done here.
Tested
- tiny / lextest / whiletest / map+field / array build all run.
- cgi-studio (1037 lines real El) compiles to C cleanly. Link fails
only because runtime is missing fs_list, json_encode, llm_*; those
are scheduled batches.
- Three-stage closure (stage1 vs stage2 vs stage3) byte-identical.
Will Anderson