Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!cme!kramer
From: kramer@cme.nbs.gov (Tom Kramer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Translating Franz Lisp to Common
Keywords: lisp, franz, common
Message-ID: <1196@cayman.cme.nbs.gov>
Date: 30 May 89 13:56:21 GMT
Organization: National Institute of Standards & Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
Lines: 23


I have translated a few hundred lines of Franz Lisp code into Common Lisp.
I had written the Franz code myself.  For stylistic reasons (I always
used def rather than defun in Franz), not one function could be used as
as is.  Even without the style problem, only the simplest functions
(one or two lines of car's, cdr's, mapcar's, etc.) could be used without
alteration.

Around the end of 1988 I inquired from Franz, Inc. whether they had any
programming aids to give to users for translating Franz to Common.  They
did not.

I have not heard of a translator program.  To write a translator that would
handle a moderately complex (50 twenty-line functions) software system in
Franz with only a few errors and inefficiencies, would take several months
solid work, I think.  On the other hand, a translator limited to, say, 50
of the most used Franz functions that differ only slightly from Common
functions of the same name or have differently named but similarly behaved
counterparts could be banged out in a few days.

I wrote a brief (5 pages) comparison of Franz and Allegro Common for my own
use.  It covers about 200 Franz and Common functions, with one line per
function.  I will be glad to send it to E-mail requestors.