Ross ROSS = Recommend OSS · open-source software intelligence for agents

kevinlawler/kona

Open-source implementation of the K programming language observed · 2026-08-28

github.com/kevinlawler/kona · C · ISC (permissive) observed · 2026-08-28

Health v2 · maintenance only

23/100

  • Activity 0
  • Release rhythm 8
  • Longevity 100
How is this computed?

round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.

  • gap_med: n/a
  • age_days: 5852
  • days_rel: n/a
  • days_push: 1188
  • n_releases_24m: 0

Full methodology

Adoption not part of the score

1414 stars · 150 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

Kona is an open-source C implementation of the K (k3) programming language, an APL/LISP-derived array language originally from Kx Systems. It provides a command-line interpreter for the k3 dialect, which is no longer commercially available.

Use cases

  • run k3 scripts without a proprietary Kx license
  • learn the K array programming language
  • analyze large datasets with vectorized array operations
  • prototype trading and financial analytics in K
  • study Arthur Whitney's terse C coding style
  • experiment with APL-style list-based programming in ASCII

When to choose

  • you need a free, open-source k3 interpreter
  • you want to learn or teach the K language
  • you work with array/vector-style data analysis and prefer terse notation

When to avoid

  • you need production support or k4/q compatibility - use KDB+ from Kx
  • you need a modern, actively developed language ecosystem
  • you want multi-dimensional APL arrays rather than K's list-based model

Facets

cli-tool · maturity maintenance

interpreter programming-language cli programming-languages fintech data-science windows cli cross-platform k-language apl array-programming kdb-plus vector-language repl command-line linux macos

1 source

Member repositories

RepositoryRoleHealth v2
kevinlawler/konamain23

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="kevinlawler/kona")

Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem