> As the title says -> Is there a good autolisp -> C covertor.
> Thanks for any info.
I've got recently a prospectus about this matter.
Chestnut Software, Inc has developed a tool called
Lisp-to-C Translator,
"Chestnut Software's Lisp-to-C Translator is a developpement tool
which translates Common Lisp applications to portable, ANSI standard C.
The translator reads each Lisp source code file and produces an
equivalent version in C. ....."
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|POST: Alassane NDIAYE | |
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In article <····················@sol.cs.uni-sb.de>,
Alassane Ndiaye <······@cs.uni-sb.de> wrote:
>I've got recently a prospectus about this matter.
>Chestnut Software, Inc has developed a tool called
>Lisp-to-C Translator,
>"Chestnut Software's Lisp-to-C Translator is a developpement tool
>which translates Common Lisp applications to portable, ANSI standard C.
>The translator reads each Lisp source code file and produces an
>equivalent version in C. ....."
I just got the same prospectus (which, interestingly enough, didn't
include any pricing information). It looks potentially useful, but I
haven't heard anything on it from people actually using it. Since
this is a recurring topic here, it would be useful to get some
feedback on it from end users.
Ben
In article <··········@ground.cs.columbia.edu>, ······@news.cs.columbia.edu (Benjamin Olasov) writes:
|>
|> >I've got recently a prospectus about this matter.
|> >Chestnut Software, Inc has developed a tool called
|> >Lisp-to-C Translator,
|> >"Chestnut Software's Lisp-to-C Translator is a developpement tool
|> >which translates Common Lisp applications to portable, ANSI standard C.
|> >The translator reads each Lisp source code file and produces an
|> >equivalent version in C. ....."
|>
|> I just got the same prospectus (which, interestingly enough, didn't
|> include any pricing information). It looks potentially useful, but I
|> haven't heard anything on it from people actually using it. Since
|> this is a recurring topic here, it would be useful to get some
|> feedback on it from end users.
|>
|>
|> Ben
|>
Sorry not to be able to give definitive feedback, but I can point you to a source for
additional information.
Several years ago the AI group at the Kennedy Space Center purchased this package for
(as best I remember) somewhere between $60,000 and $100,000. It was intended to rewrite
a model-based expert system called "KATE" which had been developed on Symbolics machines.
But as far as I know, they never successfully used the translator beyond the evaluation stage
(but yes, it was purchased anyway).
You might contact the following people for specific information (I'm not sure that they
follow this newsgroup):
Charlie Goodrich, manager for the I-Net personnel who are working for the
NASA AI group at Kennedy.
················@edl_gate.ksc.nasa.gov
or
Steve Beltz, an I-Net employee who recommended the purchase of Chestnut's translator.
·····@chaffee.ksc.nasa.gov
I would highly recommend that you get more than one user reference from Chestnut before
purchasing anything as expensive as a LISP to C translator. It might be simpler to just
rewrite your application in C.
IMO, anyone buying a LISP to C translator is asking for major headaches.
Steve Fulton
······@ctron.com
(Unfortunately, we don't develop anything in LISP, so my opinions are strictly my own
and not even understood by my management)
In article <············@ctron-news.ctron.com> ······@van.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Steven L. Fulton) writes:
>Several years ago the AI group at the Kennedy Space Center purchased this package for
>(as best I remember) somewhere between $60,000 and $100,000.
...
>I would highly recommend that you get more than one user reference from Chestnut before
>purchasing anything as expensive as a LISP to C translator. It might be simpler to just
>rewrite your application in C.
Note that Chestnut's software has come down in price considerably since
then. The FAQ says that it now costs $12,000. This is still significantly
more expensive than Lucid and Franz (and an order of magnitude more than
Medley and Top Level), but if you really need a translator that produces
readable C code then they're the only choice, so they can get away with
setting their own price (within limits -- they probably weren't selling too
many of the $100K licenses).
--
Barry Margolin
System Manager, Thinking Machines Corp.
······@think.com {uunet,harvard}!think!barmar
In article <············@early-bird.think.com> ······@think.com (Barry Margolin) writes:
>Medley and Top Level), but if you really need a translator that produces
>readable C code then they're the only choice, so they can get away with
If you don't need readable C, Sapiens Software had a Lisp-to-C
compiler in beta from about a year or two ago. I
think Sapiens decided not to market it, but you might
contact them. I played with it a little bit. The code was
definately unreadable, if you ask me, but I'm not what you'd
call a proficient C programmer.
Marshall Abrams
In addition to the so far mentioned Lisp to C converters,
there is also CLiCC. CLiCC is a Compiler which translates from a
very large subset of CommonLisp+CLOS (called CommonLisp0/CLOS0) to C.
CLiCC is developed as part of the joint project APPLY.
CLiCC can be obtained at
ftp.informatik.uni-kiel.de:pub/kiel/apply/clicc-0.6.1.tar.Z (134.245.15.113)
We just finished the translation of the CommonLisp0 and CLOS0 language report
from german to english (location as above file: CL0.ps.Z).
The generated C code is not readable in the sense of hand written C code.
It results from a direct translation of abstract machine code to corresponding
C constructs. Because of this, we call the underlying hypothetical machine an
"abstract C machine". If you know this machine, you can very well understand
the C code.
Anyway, what is the benefit of having generated 'readable' C code? Is the
application to be maintained in C after translation? Or is it merely
convenient for debugging purposes?
Greetings,
Ulrich
--
Ulrich Hoffmann email: ···@informatik.uni-kiel.de
Institut fuer Informatik, Universitaet Kiel Tel: +49 431 560426
Preusserstr 1-9, D-24105 Kiel, Germany Fax: +49 431 566143