Peter Seibel wrote: > 1) You can use CLISP as long as you don't need multithreading and > can live within the constraints of its GPL license.... > > 2) You can use Franz's trial version of Allegro ... > > 3) You can use Corman which is not quite free (as in beer) but is > quite inexpensive. ... > > 4) SBCL is getting quite close to having a Windows port. ... > > ...I'm not sure what exactly can be done about the perception problems > except possibly to point out that with CLISP you get a cross-platform > solution similar to what you get with Python or Perl.
That, plus identifying choices like the above in a clear, concise way that summarizes the pros and cons, would probably do wonders. This cliki page (http://www.cliki.net/Common%20Lisp%20implementation) looks like it's about halfway there, but something with a better feature comparison would be great. Maybe this is something that will end up in the FAQ ... maybe this is something I could help add to the FAQ! =) > So folks who are inclined to tackle the real technical problems > standing between Windows users and Lisp adoption, the best bet would > either be to help out the SBCL effort or (if you think threads are > important) to try and figure out how to help the CLISP guys add > multithreading to their implementation. If there's something I can do on this end that doesn't require being a Lisp master, I'd help out. Probably helping with SBCL is a better idea in the long run, especially if it means standalone executables. I don't know if many others are in the same situation, but my best chance of getting to use Lisp at work usefully is to be able to create standalone tools that I can share or integrate into a build process that doesn't depend on an installed Lisp. I also suspect that the inability to create a standalone .exe in many common implementations keeps Lisp in the "interpreted" category for a lot of people, even if that's not technically correct. (Or maybe that's just a feature that I'm personally fixated on?) - josh g. _______________________________________________ Gardeners mailing list [email protected] http://www.lispniks.com/mailman/listinfo/gardeners
