From: Nonzero
Subject: LISP and Calling Other Programs
Date: 
Message-ID: <376b0355.0301051159.65351a86@posting.google.com>
Hello Everyone,

I am still a bit new to LISP, so I apologize if this is a tiresome, or
often asked question.

I would like to know how to have a program written in LISP call another
program.  For example, I would like my LISP program to do the equivalent
of typing:

program-name argument1 argument2

at my Linux command prompt.

Thank you in advance for any assistance you may be able to provide.
-Colin

From: Rahul Jain
Subject: Re: LISP and Calling Other Programs
Date: 
Message-ID: <87n0mf8bhc.fsf@localhost.localdomain>
····@geneseo.edu (Nonzero) writes:

> I would like to know how to have a program written in LISP call another
> program.  For example, I would like my LISP program to do the equivalent
> of typing:
> 
> program-name argument1 argument2
> 
> at my Linux command prompt.

This is something which cannot be part of a language standard, as it
depends on the operating system even providing such a concept. In an OS
which is the Lisp environment, there is no such thing as another
program. Consult the documentation for your lisp implementation for some
kind of run-program or run-shell-command function.

--
Rahul Jain
From: Henrik Motakef
Subject: Re: LISP and Calling Other Programs
Date: 
Message-ID: <87r8brxlqt.fsf@interim.henrik-motakef.de>
····@geneseo.edu (Nonzero) writes:

> I would like to know how to have a program written in LISP call another
> program.  For example, I would like my LISP program to do the equivalent
> of typing:
> 
> program-name argument1 argument2
> 
> at my Linux command prompt.

There is no standard function to do this, it depends on the Lisp
system you use. Chances are that yours has a function called
RUN-PROGRAM or similar (CLISP and CMU CL have), you can search for
something like that by typing, for example, `(apropos "program")' in
the read-eval-print loop.

There is also a compatibility layer called "port" that includes
functions for running external programs, read about it at
<http://clocc.sourceforge.net/dist/port.html>.

hth
Henrik