The Architecture of Programming Languages: From Abstraction to Optimization

This foundational lecture introduces Lisp as a powerful tool for procedural and symbolic abstraction, establishing the core concept of programming as the manipulation of symbols and expressions.

Building on symbolic abstraction, this lecture introduces persistent data structures, a critical concept for understanding immutable data and functional programming paradigms that underpin robust language design.

With an understanding of data structures, this lecture delves into type systems and decidability, exploring how formal properties of languages ensure correctness and the inherent limits of static analysis.

Transitioning from language theory, this lecture examines the practical capabilities and limitations of compilers, detailing how source code is transformed and optimized within the Clang/LLVM pipeline.

Leveraging knowledge of compiler internals, this lecture explores advanced optimization techniques for Clojure on the JVM, demonstrating how language runtimes can be tuned for peak performance.

Finally, this lecture showcases a cutting-edge native Clojure dialect built on LLVM, illustrating how deep compiler integration enables seamless C++ interop and high-performance native application development.