common LISP on a PC?

Bob Hayden

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May 1, 1995, 3:00:00 AM5/1/95

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I am taking a LISP class at school, but hate spending all my time in the
computer lab. Just wondering if there exists a LISP package i can run on
my PC at home, better yet a WINDOWS (or WIN95) version!

thanks,

BOB
rha...@ucsd.edu

Reinhard Urban

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May 3, 1995, 3:00:00 AM5/3/95

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Bob Hayden (rha...@ucsd.edu) wrote:
> I am taking a LISP class at school, but hate spending all my time in the
> computer lab. Just wondering if there exists a LISP package i can run on
> my PC at home, better yet a WINDOWS (or WIN95) version!

Allegro (fastest and most expensive), Gold Hill Lisp (good too)
Xlisp >2.0 (free) and a shareware Lisp somewhere from australia. I forgot
the name.
All of them run under WfW3.11 and Win95 too, Allegro has a Win32s version.
--
| Reini Urban alias rur...@sbox.tu-graz.ac.at |
| AutoCAD Courses at the TU-Graz, Austria, |
| Architects Domenig-Eisenkoeck, Graz |

Jason Trenouth

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May 9, 1995, 3:00:00 AM5/9/95

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Bob Hayden (rha...@ucsd.edu) wrote:

Bob> I am taking a LISP class at school, but hate spending all my time
Bob> in the computer lab. Just wondering if there exists a LISP
Bob> package i can run on my PC at home, better yet a WINDOWS (or
Bob> WIN95) version!

In article <3o6g3v$4...@freelove.tu-graz.ac.at> rur...@sbox.tu-graz.ac.at (Reinhard Urban) writes:

Reinhard> Allegro (fastest and most expensive), Gold Hill Lisp (good
Reinhard> too) Xlisp >2.0 (free) and a shareware Lisp somewhere from
Reinhard> australia. I forgot the name. All of them run under WfW3.11
Reinhard> and Win95 too, Allegro has a Win32s version.

Kelly Murray

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May 9, 1995, 3:00:00 AM5/9/95

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In article <JASON.95M...@wratting.harlqn.co.uk>, ja...@harlequin.co.uk (Jason Trenouth) writes:
|>
|> Bob Hayden (rha...@ucsd.edu) wrote:
|>
|> Bob> I am taking a LISP class at school, but hate spending all my time
|> Bob> in the computer lab. Just wondering if there exists a LISP
|> Bob> package i can run on my PC at home, better yet a WINDOWS (or
|> Bob> WIN95) version!
|>
|> In article <3o6g3v$4...@freelove.tu-graz.ac.at> rur...@sbox.tu-graz.ac.at (Reinhard Urban) writes:
|>
|> Reinhard> Allegro (fastest and most expensive), Gold Hill Lisp (good
|> Reinhard> too) Xlisp >2.0 (free) and a shareware Lisp somewhere from
|> Reinhard> australia. I forgot the name. All of them run under WfW3.11
|> Reinhard> and Win95 too, Allegro has a Win32s version.
|>
|> Harlequin distributes "FreeLisp", a (CLtL2) CL with a GUI on MS
|> Windows, but no compiler.

This is a nice gesture, but doesn't this help to perpetuate the myth
that Lisp is interpreted and slow??

AKCL (Austin Kyoto Common Lisp) was (is?) a better free implementation
to help stamp out old misconceptions of Lisp.
It would slowly compile CL into unsafe hard-to-debug code,
but at least it was relatively fast.

--
-Kelly Murray (k...@franz.com) Franz, Inc

Marty Hall

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May 10, 1995, 3:00:00 AM5/10/95

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In <3oob4h$9...@no-names.nerdc.ufl.edu> k...@prl.ufl.edu (Kelly Murray) writes:
>In article <JASON.95M...@wratting.harlqn.co.uk>,
> ja...@harlequin.co.uk (Jason Trenouth) writes:

[...] Jason:

>|> Harlequin distributes "FreeLisp", a (CLtL2) CL with a GUI on MS
>|> Windows, but no compiler.

[...] Kelly:

>This is a nice gesture, but doesn't this help to perpetuate the myth
>that Lisp is interpreted and slow??
>
>AKCL (Austin Kyoto Common Lisp) was (is?) a better free implementation
>to help stamp out old misconceptions of Lisp.

First of all, "FreeLisp" should really be called "CheapLisp"; it costs
$50, and is only available for University use (as I understand
it). This is a good alternative for students who want to do
assignments on PCs at home. I am told Nancy Fisher
(nfi...@harlequin.com) handles this.

GNU Common Lisp, (and AKCL, its predecessor) does not run on DOS or
Windows, which is what I thought Jason was responding to. Also,
FreeLisp is supposedly full CLtL/2, while GCL, though moving that
direction, is not. And to some non-Internet-savvy students, being able
to call Harlequin on an 800 number and get FreeLisp+editor on disks is
an advantage. But GCL is compiled, does have CLOS (via PCL) and can be
used with the ILISP package from GNU Emacs or Xemacs on UNIX/Linux
platforms, and runs on VMS. And of course GCL is not limited to
University/Educational use, as is FreeLisp.

CLISP is another alternative for people who want free CL's for
DOS. Some Linux versions bundle it, I think. Like GCL, it is also
CLtL/1 with CLOS and some other CLtL/2 features, and has a reasonably
good compiler. I've been recommending this to my students who have PCs
and don't want to dial into the Hopkins UNIX machine, or want to debug
at home and just upload at the end. Now I'll probably recommend both
CLISP and FreeLisp.

Allegro CL/PC is obviously a good choice for serious Lisp/Windows
developers, but is a bit steep for most students' budgets who are just
using Lisp for a semester. Get 'em hooked on Lisp with a good intro in
school, and then they'll want a real development version like this for
Windows/OOP/AI development when they get out. :-)

GCL and CLISP are discussed in section 4-0 of the comp.lang.lisp FAQ,
You can obtain the full file by anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.cmu.edu
(128.2.206.173) in /user/ai/pubs/faqs/lisp/lisp_xx.faq (where xx = 1
through 7). Or send email to ai+q...@cs.cmu.edu with a body of "Send
Lisp FAQ".

Cheers-
- Marty
(proclaim '(inline skates))