Standard Library

Elle's standard library has three layers: VM primitives (Rust), stdlib functions (Elle), and prelude macros (Elle).

Libraries (lib/)

Higher-level modules loaded with import-file. Each wraps its code in a closure returning a struct.

Prelude (prelude.lisp)

Macros loaded before user code. These define fundamental control flow:

defn        function definition sugar
let*        alias for let (sequential bindings)
->          thread-first
->>         thread-last
when        one-armed conditional
unless      negated one-armed conditional
cond        multi-branch conditional
case        equality dispatch
if-let      conditional binding (two arms)
when-let    conditional binding (one arm)
while-let   conditional loop
match       pattern matching
each        iteration
try/catch   error recovery
protect     error capture
defer       guaranteed cleanup
with        resource management
repeat      run N times
forever     infinite loop
error       raise an error

stdlib (stdlib.lisp)

Functions loaded after the prelude:

map filter fold apply sum product
append reverse take drop butlast last
sort sort-by sort-with
compose partial identity
->array ->list
freeze thaw deep-freeze

VM primitives

Native functions implemented in Rust. Use (vm/list-primitives) to enumerate, or (doc fn-name) for documentation.

(doc +)                    # shows arity, params, examples
(vm/primitive-meta "+")    # returns full metadata struct

IEEE 754 bitcast

See also

• plugins.md — native plugin extensions
• modules.md — import system
• functions.md — function reference