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From: jasst3@cisunx.UUCP (sullivan jeffrey a.)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Looking for Common Lisp for the Mac
Message-ID: <4561@cisunx.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Oct-87 16:24:43 EST
Article-I.D.: cisunx.4561
Posted: Thu Oct 22 16:24:43 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Oct-87 09:09:59 EST
References: <8400003@uiucdcsm>
Organization: Univ. of Pittsburgh, Comp & Info Sys
Lines: 44
Summary: There are two of them.

In article <8400003@uiucdcsm>, tcheng@uiucdcsm.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
> 
> Help!!!
> 
> I'm looking for the best implementation of COMMON LISP for the the Mac-Plus.
> Any -->'s appriciated.
> 
> Dave Tcheng

Well, Dave, you've got an easy choice, if Common Lisp is what you really want.
There are two CL implementations on the mac, Expertelligence has ExperCommon
Lisp (~$999), and Coral Software has Allegro Extended Common Lisp (~$400).

Surprisingly, Allegro (AECL) is the only full implementation of CL!  Exper 
(ECL) is not a full common lisp (as defined in the book: CLtL by Guy Steele).
Apparently, there are also some real problems with ECL; it has been a real 
problem to some of my classmates.

AECL is a pleasure to work with, on the other hand.  It is a full CL with 
extensions, and has an object-oriented programming system of some power
(ObjectLisp by Gary Drescher) built into it.  Most of the Mac interface is
objectified (windows, menus, dialogs, and pop-ups) for easy use.  A 
built-in Emacs-style editor is integrated seamlessly into the system.  I have
run into no bugs so far.

On the other shoe, ECL is the only one that lets you create stand-alone
applications at this time.  Coral is working on a stand-alone generator, which
will likely be ready by year's end.  They are also releasing this week a 
documentation upgrade which will hopefully fix a slight disappointment in
the system:  The docs are brief and very non-tutorial.  I got by, but to
someone just picking up the language, CLtL is likely NOT the place to learn.
Another gripe about Coral AECL is that it came with NO sample programs. 
Strange.

On the whole, I can say that I have heard bad things about ECL from others,
but I have not used it myself, so take this as hearsay.  I have, however,
been using AECL, and can recommend it.  (Though I'd also recommned having
2Megs of memory... the AECL application is !750K!)

..........................................................................
Jeff Sullivan				University of Pittsburgh
pitt!cisunx!jasst3 			Intelligent Systems Studies Program
jasper@PittVMS (BITNET)			Graduate Student
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