Once a seasoned computer student and developer, this individual spent years immersed in Ruby on Rails projects for clients without personally writing code. However, everything changed when they discovered Common Lisp during an unexpected task. Initially meant as a short mission to create server management software using the language’s ASN.1 parsing capabilities, it led them down a path of creating powerful tools and libraries instead.
As their passion for Common Lisp grew over years, they developed popular projects like cl-unix-cybernetics (with top Github stars), cl-streams, cl-cffi, and eventually cl-facts—a triple store functioning as a graph database with remarkable speed and atomic transactions. Their achievements culminated in presenting their work at ELS (European Lisp Symposium) in Belgium.
Despite the successes, this journey also brought challenges: losing clients due to focusing solely on personal projects while witnessing criticisms surrounding other languages’ limitations—such as virtual machines and containers—and even Common Lisp itself. These concerns led them back towards familiar territory with one goal in mind – finding a solution that balanced performance, portability, security, and ease of use without sacrificing speed or flexibility.
The answer lay within an old yet reliable language: C. They embarked on creating KC3 (formerly known as C3), which evolved into both a programming language with an interpreter (ic3) and compiler (c3c). In just three years, they refactored the system five times while maintaining compatibility across layers; resulting in impressive outcomes like porting their graph database from Common Lisp to plain old C89 without significant issues.
Besides databases, KC3 now boasts various data structures inspired by other languages such as Elixir’s Fly.io framework—including Structs, Linked lists, Maps, Hash tables, Time manipulation functions up to Complex numbers and Rationals—all achieved through powerful macros similar to those found in José Valim’s work.
With a functional REPL (ikc3) for testing purposes alongside an HTTP server with an integrated MVC framework called kc3_httpd handling this very webpage’s production, they even managed to create their documentation site using KC3 itself! Inviting others to join the community on Discord further highlights their enthusiasm for sharing these accomplishments.
Despite starting as a Common Lisp enthusiast with 700 unexpected views on one of his articles showcasing its potential impact, this journey has transformed him into an influential figure in both C programming language development and creating innovative solutions within the tech world.
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