The current interpreter even has this! In fact, the meat of many (most?) functions is implemented using the (functions underlying the) primitives. It's kind of

The current interpreter even has this! In fact, the meat of many (most?) functions is implemented using the (functions underlying the) primitives. It's kind of fascinating to skim through, if you're already familiar with array programming. The code goes way out of its way to reduce the impedance mismatch between J and C semantics.