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(via pop-forum) How to run Lisp from Windows Poplog?

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Jocelyn Paine

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Dec 22, 2009, 8:45:17 AM12/22/09
to pop-...@cs.bham.ac.uk
I've installed Windows Poplog on my PC under XP, as described at
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/internal/courses/ai-prog-a/howto_poplog_vista.php
HOWTO install Poplog on Windows (Vista) . This resulted in two Poplog
icons on my desktop: one labelled Pop-11 that starts Pop-11 inside a black
DOS-type window, and one labelled Poplog that starts Ved inside a white
window. Question: how do I run Lisp? HELP CLISP ( e.g.
http://wwwcgi.rdg.ac.uk:8081/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wsi14/poplog/lisp/help/clisp
) tells me to run the 'clisp' command from my shell, but that doesn't seem
relevant here.

Also, how does Poplog Common Lisp compare with e.g. SBCL? Can I recommend
it as an up-to-date implementation, with the features and utilities one
would expect in other Common Lisps?

Cheers,

Jocelyn Paine
http://www.j-paine.org
+44 (0)7768 534 091

"Poplog, continuations, Eliza, AI education, and Prolog":
an essay about Poplog and AI teaching
at http://www.j-paine.org/dobbs/poplog.html .

Aaron Sloman

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Dec 22, 2009, 8:58:26 AM12/22/09
to Discussion of Poplog and Pop11, Jocelyn Paine
Dear Jocelyn,

I have just seen your message as I was about to leave to visit
someone.

I wonder whether you have looked at or tried the solution here

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/winpop/andl


It starts:

Poplog-on-andLinux_InstallationGuide

A guide to installing poplog on Windows with andLinux.

The following describes the process I went through to get poplog
running on Windows with andLinux. It is not intended to be a
comprehensive guide. Almost no consideration is given to options
of software version or configuration. It assumes much knowledge
of configuring Linux and running poplog-on-Linux. It is intended
simply to allow others to replicate what I did. In other words,
although much of the following is worded imperatively it should
be read as, "This is what I did." You may have the experience to
know better.

- Christopher Martin <bel...@internode.on.net>, 1 October 2009

If it works, it should give you the full functionality of linux
poplog on windows.

It would be useful to have a report back on the instructions (do
they need any necessary additions, improvements, etc.) and how well
the system works. I am not a windows user and have not had time to
try borrwing my wife's machine to test this out.

Aaron

Jocelyn Paine

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Dec 22, 2009, 9:45:39 AM12/22/09
to Aaron Sloman, Discussion of Poplog and Pop11
Dear Aaron,

Thanks a lot for the suggestion. I had seen it, yes. However, I decided
against it. This is why. Last week, I blogged an article about a joke
generator someone had written in not-quite-portable Lisp ( see
http://www.j-paine.org/dobbs/lisp_joke_generator.html ). Yesterday,
a reader mailed me to say they'd modified the code to make it portable
to Common Lisp. I was going to blog another article about this, and
explain how to run it under SBCL (Steel Bank Common Lisp). Then it
occurred to me that perhaps I should recommend trying Poplog Lisp too. But
doing so natively under Windows seemed easier for readers than via
andLinux.

Jocelyn Paine
http://www.j-paine.org
http://www.spreadsheet-parts.org
http://www.spreadsheet-factory.com
+44 (0)7768 534 091

R.P....@brighton.ac.uk

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Dec 22, 2009, 10:15:49 AM12/22/09
to Discussion of Poplog and Pop11
Hi Jocelyn,

this is only an approximate answer to your query, because although I use
poplog on windows, I don't use the 'standard' installation of it, so I
don't quite know what it does. But I'm guessing the two icons on the
desktop are shortcuts which contain the poplog invocation command inside
them. If you make a copy of one of the shortcuts, and then right-click
to select its properties, you will probably see this command string. By
adding '+clisp' to the command, you should be able to create a shortcut
that starts up with the common lisp saved state loaded.

hope that helps

Roger

Aaron Sloman

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Dec 22, 2009, 12:52:43 PM12/22/09
to Discussion of Poplog and Pop11, Jocelyn Paine

Jocelyn wrote:

> Also, how does Poplog Common Lisp compare with e.g. SBCL?


There have been some published performance tables including poplog
and other systems. I don't know how many. One I have found is this
one:

http://www.cons.org/cmucl/benchmarks/index.html

It seems that Poplog lisp was able to run all but three of the
tests, and was generally a little slower than SBCL, but on a few
things *much* slower, and on some things faster.

It also did better than the 'reference' system on some things, as
did SBCL.


> Can I recommend
> it as an up-to-date implementation, with the features and utilities one
> would expect in other Common Lisps?

Most of them but not all. This file, last updated in June 1995,
lists omissions in Poplog Common lisp:

http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/research/projects/poplog/doc/lisphelp/bugs

If the standard has changed since then there may be more omissions.

Aaron

Jocelyn Paine

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Dec 28, 2009, 3:18:19 AM12/28/09
to R.P....@brighton.ac.uk, Discussion of Poplog and Pop11
Hi Roger,

Thanks for the hint. I tried your suggestion, and it worked.
Right-clicking on a copy of the Poplog icon, and selecting Properties and
then the Shortcut tab showed me the command string:
"C:\Program Files\poplog\pop\pop\winpop11.exe" +startup

I changed this to:
"C:\Program Files\poplog\pop\pop\winpop11.exe" +startup +clisp
(and also renamed the shortcut to "Poplog Lisp"). Double-clicking
on it brought up a white Ved window with a banner saying "Common Lisp
(Version 2.0)" and a "Setlisp" and "==" prompt. As a little test,
typing
(+ 1 2)
and Enter displayed 3, followed by a new prompt.

Cheers,

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