Tim, Did you actually read this article? In fact the article contains the specific reason why you should *not* be converting BOOT code to Lisp: (my emphasis ** ** below):
--------- ... Domain Specific Languages In this article we've already encountered two domain specific languages: Ant (specific to dealing with project builds) and our unnamed mini-language for dealing with to-do lists. The difference is that Ant was written from scratch using XML, an XML parser, and Java while our language is embedded into Lisp and is easily created within a couple of minutes. We've already discussed the benefits of DSLs, mainly why Ant is using XML, not Java source code. **Lisp lets us create as many DSLs as we need for our problem.** We can create domain specific languages for creating web applications, writing massively multiplayer games, doing fixed income trading, solving the protein folding problem, dealing with transactions, etc. We can layer these languages on top of each other and create a language for writing web-based trading applications by taking advantage of our web application language and bond trading language. Every day we'd reap the benefits of this approach, much like we reap the benefits of Ant. Using DSLs to solve problems results in much more compact, maintainable, flexible programs. In a way we create them in Java by creating classes that help us solve the problem. The difference is that Lisp allows us to take this abstraction to the next level: we're not limited by Java's parser. Think of writing build scripts in Java itself using some supporting library. Compare it to using Ant. Now apply this same comparison to every single problem you've ever worked on and you'll begin to glimpse a small share of the benefits offered by Lisp. ------- BOOT is just another DSL. Writing Axiom internals in BOOT does not mean that we are no longer use Lisp, rather it means we are simply using Lisp in the way it was intended to be used. Regards, Bill Page. On 3/3/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'd encourage you to spend a few minutes reading > http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/lisp.html > > It is a gentle introduction to the reason why I'm moving > all of the internal code to common lisp. > > Tim > _______________________________________________ Axiom-developer mailing list Axiom-developer@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/axiom-developer