[fanf2]

In a query-oriented compiler, you can give it a source location and ask for type infomation, or where is the definition of the symbol at that location, and the compiler will do just enough work to give you the answer, using laziness and memoization to make it reasonably efficient. As far as I know, LISP systems don't work that way: they parse and evaluate (and maybe compile) as soon as an expression is entered, without the kind of laziness you see in a query-oriented compiler.

This recent link was pretty good, I think https://ollef.github.io/blog/posts/query-based-compilers.htm... and this discussion with Anders Hejlsberg https://youtu.be/wSdV1M7n4gQ