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From: barmar@think.COM (Barry Margolin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: Lisp standard?
Message-ID: <11104@think.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Nov-87 16:40:52 EST
Article-I.D.: think.11104
Posted: Fri Nov  6 16:40:52 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Nov-87 20:45:41 EST
References: <3227@xanth.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@think.UUCP
Reply-To: barmar@sauron.UUCP (Barry Margolin)
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 37

In article <3227@xanth.UUCP> kyle@xanth.UUCP (Kyle Jones) writes:
>Does anyone know of an effort similar to ANSI's X3J11 committee (which
>is developing a standard for the C language) to standardize Lisp?

Yes, X3J13 is the technical committee working on a standard for Common
Lisp.  It has been in existence for about a year.

>Does anyone even have a list of functions that I can expect to be
>consistent between different Lisps?  I've done a considerable amount
>of work with Lisp but with only two flavors, so I'd appreciate
>responses from Lisp users who have used many different Lisp systems.

There aren't many universal Lisp functions.  Off the top of my head I
come up with CAR, CDR, CONS, LIST, SETQ, and the simple mathematical
functions (although they tend to differ about whether they are generic
and the types of results they return); most have COND, but some may
only have IF; RPLACA and RPLACD were pretty common until Common Lisp
replaced them with SETF.

Common differences among dialects include function defining (DEF vs.
DEFINE vs. DEFUN vs. ...), array creation and reference, structures,
I/O, and type-testing.

However, there are now a number of Common Lisp implementations for
different machines, and they are all mostly compatible, and this is
the basis of the ANSI standardization effort, so your best bet is to
write your programs in Common Lisp.  Until the standard comes out, the
most complete description of CL is in "Common Lisp: the Language", by
Guy L. Steele, Jr., published by Digital Press in 1984 and available
in most bookstores with a decent computer section.

---
Barry Margolin
Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
seismo!think!barmar