From: ········@bayou.uh.edu
Subject: Re: Why lisp failed in the marketplace
Date: 
Message-ID: <5et76s$sjk@Masala.CC.UH.EDU>
Martin Cracauer (········@wavehh.hanse.de) wrote:
: ········@Bayou.UH.EDU (········@bayou.uh.edu) writes:

: >Could you tell me more about LispWorks or point me to a URL
: >for more info?  Is it commercial for example or pd?  How's
: >the GUI support?  Extensions?  Etc....?

: It is a "full-priced" commercial Unix implementation. See
: www.harlequin.com. They ship demos versions, as do other Lisp
: companies, so it is quite pointless to comment on the quality and
: usablity here.

Oh the Harlequin lisp!  I knew about Lisp Works, I just knew
it as "harliquin's lisp" rather than by the name.


: But related to the actual discussion, Lispworks takes some Lisp
: concepts further than other Lisp implementations on stock hardware. 

: Lispworks is an integrated environment with editor and browsers, while
: most other implementations use an external editor and integrate
: manually between Lisp runtime and some tools.

Ok I see.


: The result is that Lispworks has advantages when it comes to a number
: of customizations and programmability (word?) of tools. Die-hard Lisp
: hackers often find the closest possible integration of running Lisp
: and tools used to program it just right. Others find it important to
: use their Lisp from the same editor they use for everything
: else. Die-harder Lisp fans will of course use the Lispworks editor for
: everything else, too :-)

: In that way, like Rainer said, it is closer to the environment of a
: Lisp machine than most other stock-hardware Lisps are. Of course, it
: has it disadvantages, too. You can shoot your editor by killing your
: Lisp image and you can't use normal elisp code for the editor (what
: Franz Allgro can). See the ralated thread about editors going on just
: now in comp.lang.lisp.

Ahhh I see.


: Lispworks has a number of extensions (Prolog, database access,
: interface to knowledgeworks) and advanced GUI building tools.

: As I said, demo versions are your friend. MCL and CMUCL/Hemlock are
: other integrated Common Lisp/Editor/Tools systems.

Yup.  I'm currently trying out DrScheme.  It's a great system,
but it swaps like crazy on my system (Win95/16 megs RAM).  Maybe
it's my setup *shrug*.  In any case I tried Allegro Common Lisp
(demo), and something by Harlequin (not sure if it was Lisp works
or some other demo), but I really prefer DrScheme so far.  


: Martin
: -- 
: %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
: ···············@wavehh.hanse.de http://cracauer.cons.org  Fax.: +4940 5228536
: "As far as I'm concerned,  if something is so complicated that you can't ex-
:  plain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway"- Calvin


Thanks for the info.


--
Cya,
Ahmed