
Ask HN: What Lisp-like language fits my needs? -  capableweb
Hello HN!<p>I&#x27;m trying to find a lisp programming language that fits my specific needs but not getting super close.  What I&#x27;m building is a desktop GUI that is supposed to run cross-platform.  I&#x27;m currently using Clojure but want to end up with binaries I can distribute, instead of JAR files, and GraalVM is too immature to handle GUI applications in Java currently, so seems I cannot use Clojure.<p>My needs:<p>- Lisp<p>- Mostly immutable data structures<p>- Compiles down to a binary that can be distributed to linux, macOS and Windows<p>- Has support (either core or libraries) for building GUI&#x27;s and hopefully contains some sort of webview component<p>- Has a good story for supporting REPL driven development<p>So far, I&#x27;ve been trying to find Clojure like languages.  Some of them that I&#x27;ve tried but been lacking in one way or another: clojerl, joker, ferret, common lisp, racket<p>I think what came the closest was Racket, but wanted to ask around as see if there is something that would be better to use. 
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gok
Have you considered just bundling a JVM at distribution time?  This is how apps
like IntelliJ work. 

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capableweb
I have not, but will look into it.  My initial fear with it, was that startup
time is still the same and size is probablya bit bloated, but not 100% about
these fears, so gonna have to try it out. 

Thanks for the suggestion. 

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swlkr
You could try janet

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capableweb
Woah, janet seems to mostly fit the bill.  Thanks a lot for the recommendation! 

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iLemming
Have you seen Fennel?