In article <··········@jabba.ess.harris.com>,
···@mercury.Harris-ATD.com (Mike McDonald) writes:
> Advantages for C (under Unix):
From my perspective (and those who influence how I work) things
are a little different. I'll try to explain. I'm *not* anti Unix
in any way, but my choice of machine is dictated by the market,
which would rather have me useing something else.
Advantages for C (under DOS & Microsoft Windows):
Popular compilers with loads of support in the form of
books and users. A large choice of libraries and tools,
interfaces to apps, and code generators. It's easy to
make these things pay for themselves, and the runtimes
often require no royalties.
Disadvantages for Lisp (under DOS & Microsoft Windows):
Lisp is perceived as a language only suitable for writing
AI apps, and very big and slow. Even a language as small,
tight, and productive as Actor is not taken seriously in
the UK (where I am).
This perhaps has little to do with a Lisp Machine, as you would
not be a typcial user if you that's what you used. Most people
are lucky to get a 386 DOS machine. Still, if you start with a
general CPU, why not a 486? This leads on to some questions such
as whether you should replace the OS with a Lisp only system,
and use a dual boot option with the user's main OS.
In article <·················@arolla.idiap.ch>,
···@arolla.idiap.ch (Thomas M. Breuel) writes:
> Lisp Machine style, the OS was not only written in Lisp, it was part
> of a single Lisp system.
I understand that, which is why I said that it should not be held
back by OS issues. If the machine runs Unix, then it's just a Unix
machine that runs Lisp.
> I do agree that most current OS isolate processes and users too much
> from one another, but I think the Lisp Machine isolated them too
> little.
You could end up with one machine per program, which might be
acceptable for some apps. Consider database servers and compute
servers etc. Now put a Lisp Machine on your network, and build
in network support to your app. If this isn't important today,
it may be soon.
-- Cyber Surfing on CIX --