Consider writing an Optimizer

[xrstf]

To optimize we'd first need to add an IsPure() to the Function interface, so the optimizer could pre-evaluate pure expressions that only rely on known literal values (like (+ 1 2)).

Optimizing would be mostly for fun and giggles and not truly something that I consider necessary for a small language with usually small programs like with Rudi. But it could still be fun to try.

[xrstf]

Work on the optimizer has stalled because Rudi cannot represent intermediary data. Think of a statement like

(set! $v (semver "1.2.3"))

semver is pure (i.e. side-effect free), so the optimizer would pre-evaluate the function call, but then I currently have no option to represent that output value (a *semver struct) as Rudi, so I cannot generate (set! $v ...???....). My goal was originally to be able to have an optimizer that would take an AST and return an AST, which can be dumped as Rudi code. But currently I see no good way of doing it.

One workaround would be to say that optimized AST's can only live in memory and not be dumped. Then I can use ast.Shim to contain arbitrary values.