Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!gnu
From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Porting Franz Lisp to run under Gnu C
Message-ID: <7487@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 31 May 89 20:40:08 GMT
References: <1196@cayman.cme.nbs.gov>
Organization: Grasshopper Group in San Francisco
Lines: 23

I have been working on making the whole BSD Unix system compile under
gcc (the GNU C compiler).  UCB intends to use gcc as "cc" in future BSD
releases, though the old pcc compiler will still be around somewhere.
One big stumbling block is Franz Lisp, which is rife with machine- and
compiler-dependencies.  Rather than replace these fragile dependencies
with different fragile dependencies, I have been removing them, making
the code more portable.

After a few days' work, I have the Lisp interpreter compiling with gcc
and pcc (and presumably any other C compiler).  There are a few loose
ends to smooth out but it's basically there.  However, the Lisp
compiler is another matter; it seems to have lots more buried
assumptions about how various C language "global variables" (the stack
pointers) have magically been put into global machine registers.

It looks like this is turning into a bigger effort than I and Berkeley
can support.  Two questions:  Does anyone care if Franz Lisp moves into
/usr/old and is desupported in BSD releases?  And, is there anyone who
wants to take on the Lisp compiler conversion themselves?
-- 
John Gilmore    {sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid,amdahl}!hoptoad!gnu    gnu@toad.com
  A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
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