The following is a product-by-product summary of the responses I
received to my question about common Lisp for the Macintosh. Thanks to
all who responded!
Executive Summary:
------------------
Allegro Common Lisp from Coral Software is clearly the most popular,
and has some very impressive features, but its price tag militates
against casual hacking. Features include optimized compilation and an
excellent development environment. Price guesstimates range from $200
(with student discount) to $600 (MSRP).
MacScheme from Semantic Microsystems is a reasonable second
alternative for those who can use the Scheme dialect, rather than a
full Common Lisp. It also compiles code which can be run as standalone
package, a feature useful for OEM software developers writing in Lisp.
The most negative responses concerned ExperCommonLisp from
Expertelligence. Common complaints were of bugs and the expense of
the package.
Several other Lisps were mentioned, including a French dialect and a
freeware version.
Allegro Common Lisp (Most Favorable Responses)
-------------------
> By far the best Common Lisp for the Macintosh is Allegro Common Lisp by
> Coral and Franz. Educational discounts put the price around $200.00(?).
> Recommend 2Meg Mac with a harddisk.
> the only fll Common Lisp implementation is Allegro CL by Coral/Franz.
> At $600 it is a bargain supporting an integrated interpreter/compiler,
> editor, debugger, and full Macintosh toolbox access. It will run on a
> MacPlus, but serious work requires at least 2mb memory (more is
> better...). On a MacintoshII features and performance compete
> favorably with a Vaxstation II running VAX Lisp (unless you need more
> than 8mb of memory).
> I've used just about *every* Lisp for the Mac in my long search for a good
> implementation and have finally found programmer's bliss with Allegro
> Common Lisp from Coral Software. It is a complete, and I mean complete,
> implementation of Common Lisp; has an excellent development environment,
> including a programmable emacs-like editor and window-oriented
> data inspectors; and has an incremental native-code compiler which does tail-
> recursion optimization and produces very efficient code. At about $400
> it is also a very good value. Just call me a satisfied customer.
> Allegro Common Lisp from Coral Software Corp. is by far the best common lisp
> available for the Mac. I don't have their phone # handy but they also offer
> a substantial ($200) educational discount. They are located in MA.
> Check any issue of Mac World/Mac User for their ads. Be sure to
> specify that you want Allegro as they also have some other lisps.
MacScheme (Generally favorable)
---------
> For lisps, I really like MacScheme from Semantic Microsystems.
> The latest version of MacScheme (v1.5) includes a native code
> compiler. Early benchmarks indicate that it may be one of THE fastest
> lisps on either PC or MAC (sorry, I can't remember where I read the
> results). If you can get away with Scheme instead of CommonLisp, I
> would highly recommend MacScheme.
> I'm a satisfied user of MacScheme and prefer Scheme over CL.
> MacScheme, from Semantic Microsystems (very reliable, fast implementation
> of Scheme; but with a limited programming environment compared to LeLisp
> or Allegro).
ExperCommonLisp (Generally unfavorable)
---------------
> I really hated ExperLisp (v1.04); it was real buggy and crashed a
> lot, plus it was very $$$$!
> Finally, a warning. Be careful about ExperIntelligence Lisp
> products. They *may* have improved, but we have had bad experience
> with their Lisp products.
> I liked ExperCommonLisp, but I didn't do anything really big, so I
> didn't buy the file compiler. It's pretty expensive though.
Other Lisps
-----------
> other reasonable alternatives I am aware of: LeLisp, which
> is a French dialect of Lisp, also very fast (includes a native code
> compiler);
> I almost forgot, there's also PCLS, a CL subset available from Univ.
> of Utah or Northwest Computer Algorithms
> Procyon CL, from a company in the UK (I don't know if it's released yet).
> Try xlisp 2.0 it's not really Common, but its close & its cheap. You
> can find it on BIX or on COMPUSERVE (go aie).
----
Steve Masticola (········@paul.rutgers.edu)
From: Robert Dale
Subject: Re: Lisp for Macintosh - Summary
Date:
Message-ID: <386@epistemi.ed.ac.uk>
I didn't see the original request for information on Macintosh Lisps.
A few weeks back I had posted a request for information on PC Common
Lisps, and didn't get very much in the way of a response (but thanks
to the two readers who did reply) -- looks like no-one out there is
using Common Lisp on a PC.
However, in the course of my information seeking, I came across
another Mac Common Lisp, from a company called Procyon in Cambridge,
UK (would you believe that no-one in the UK carries Allegro Common
Lisp)? Here's a quick resume of the Procyon offering:
- full Common Lisp
- incremental native-code compiler
- high level support for windows, menus and graphics
- programmable text editor (ie an Emacs-clone)
- structure editor
- window-based debugger
- trace and breakpoint facility
- profiler
- spelling corrector
It costs L345 (L = UK pounds) for the software; you need 2Mb or more
of memory, and they'll sell you a memory upgrade kit (2Mb) for L595;
they do the memory upgrade and the software packaged together for
L775.
You can reach Procyon as follows:
Procyon Research Ltd
Block B
Westbrook Centre
Milton Road
Cambridge CB4 1YQ
UK
Tel: +44 223 65011
Email: ·······@uk.ac.ucl.cs.nss
Disclaimer: I have no connections whatsoever with this company,
except that I've spoken to them on the phone (and was reasonably
impressed), and am considering using their Common Lisp for a project.
If you want more information on the product, contact them, not me!
--
Robert Dale | University of Edinburgh
UUCP: ...!uunet!mcvax!ukc!its63b!epistemi!rda | Centre for Cognitive Science
ARPA: ·····················@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk | 2 Buccleuch Place
JANET: ···@uk.ac.ed.epistemi | Edinburgh EH8 9LW Scotland