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From: chris@mimsy.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: autoload
Message-ID: <5530@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Feb-87 10:49:54 EST
Article-I.D.: mimsy.5530
Posted: Fri Feb 20 10:49:54 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Feb-87 10:39:32 EST
References: <254@su-russell.ARPA>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 25

In article <254@su-russell.ARPA> wade@su-russell.ARPA (Wade Hennessey) writes:
>Many popular operating systems do not have wonderful virtual memory
>systems. UNIX, for example, handles large processes so poorly that I
>might argue that autoloading *is* a good idea when writing a Lisp to
>run on it.

Unix?  What is a Unix?

Please note that there are many different virtual memory systems
out there, all running under some Unix variant.  They may indeed
all be bad, but saying `Unix handles large processes poorly' does
not provide enough information for someone who would be willing
to fix it.  Which Unix?  (The 4.[123]BSD VM code is generally
acknowledged as overdue for a rewrite.  One is in progress, but
I have no details.)

Back to the `main point': autoloading generally gives up time in
favour of space---file system space.  One can have umpteen versions
of a lisp binary that all share the same package.  In a way this
is much like shared libraries.  (If your system does the sharing
automatically, without requiring `autoload's or other helpful hints,
well, that *is* neat.)
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690)
UUCP:	seismo!mimsy!chris	ARPA/CSNet:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu