Please pardon my lack of understanding of Common LISP ...
I am looking for some information on a Virtual Machine for common LISP.
Actually, I am a heavy AutoLISP programmer for AutoCAD. Also program in
Java
and VB. I have looked over the internet for some info, unfortunately
theres
so much of it out there and so many flavors of LISP, at this point I'm
not really
sure exactly "what" I should be looking for.
Of all the languages I have looked at, LISP is really the one for me and
I
would like to start developing better skills in Common LISP. However,
without alot of
knowledge of the Common LISP world, I was hoping to find it was much
like
Java's platform independence using a runtime system or VM. Would I be
accurate
in assuming Common LISP has the same capability? It would be great to
program
LISP applications that could be run in Windows95 for example. I would
dread
having to eat mud and learn C (yuk!!). My personal feeling is that we
should be able
to program in any language that we like and not be conformed to what the
market
says is "the" programming language to know. Besides, they're *wrong* !!
I happen like LISP, and as far as I'm concerned, if there's any way
shape or
form I can program in it, I will and the heck with the "C". It never
made any sense to
me anyway.
Thanks for your patience. *Any* assistance to get me pointed in the
right direction would be
much appreciated.
--
===================================================
"Anyone can make things complicated, but genius is simplicity."
+-------------------+
Jesse Danes
Senior Draftsman/AutoCAD Administrator
Honeywell
Home & Building Controls Division
Golden Valley, MN
===================================================
In article <·················@pclink.com>, Jesse Danes <······@pclink.com>
wrote:
> Of all the languages I have looked at, LISP is really the one for me and
> I
> would like to start developing better skills in Common LISP.
Common Lisp is only one in a family of languages.
> Java's platform independence using a runtime system or VM. Would I be
> accurate
> in assuming Common LISP has the same capability? It would be great to
> program
> LISP applications that could be run in Windows95 for example.
There is nothing like a standard VM for Common Lisp.
Common Lisp systems on PCs are either interpreting Lisp
source code or they are executing a compiled code.
Often the compiled code is native x86 machine code.
> Jesse Danes
> Senior Draftsman/AutoCAD Administrator
There are some commercial Lisp systems for the Windows platform
(Allegro Common Lisp, LispWorks, Golden Common Lisp, ...).
All of them have their unique features and are compiling
to their own file format. Even on the same platform
there is no way to load the compiled code from product
A into product B. As long as you are happy with one
Common Lisp on the PC, this is o.k.
I don't know what vendors now are concentrating on (GUI debuggers
seems not to be on their list), but interoperability certainly is
not high on their list. Still it is high on *my* list.
Porting applications (I mean "applications") between
platforms is really hard, unless you are writing your own
layer (Extended Common Lisp, ...) or you are willing to
use half hearted approaches (e.g. current CLIM implementations).
Basic Common Lisp is quite portable (if vendors
would agree on what and how to implement),
anything beyond that (networking, graphics, threads, timers,
locks, streams, FFI, defsystem, code format, compiler
options, ...) is not. Work on Common Lisp has not happened for
some time (some people would say it is "stable", others would
say it is "dead"). Instead people are hoping that time passes
and when the dust settles, Common Lisp will still be there
when others are lying dead on the fields. We'll see.
More users are always welcome. I'm not one of the people
who are willing to accept that Common Lisp only serves
a certain community. The computer science department
of the University of Hamburg now uses Common Lisp
in the introductory course (using Norvig's PAIP).
They start early. No compromises. The way to go.
--
http://www.lavielle.com/~joswig/