Many #FP languages compile down to C or LLVM IR and, from thence, down to binary. That is all well and good, but I think there is a simpler, better way: to target the classic #Scheme #R4RS as the IR, then use a modern optimising Scheme implementation to compile that IR down to binary.

MacCarthy's #LISP was an imperfect, albeit practical, rendition of 𝜆-calculus, which is the ideal IR for FP languages. By extension, a subset of modern Scheme is the perfect IR for FP languages.

Hot take: in terms of the language specified treated independently of the social process of standardization itself, everyone's beloved #r5rs is actually the worst post-#r4rs scheme, and #r6rs is easily the best and most revolutionary, hence the controversy surrounding it.

#lisp #srfi