Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site osu-eddie.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!apr!osu-eddie!verber
From: verber@osu-eddie.UUCP (Mark Verber)
Newsgroups: net.micro.mac
Subject: Re: ExperLisp
Message-ID: <451@osu-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 12-Jul-85 08:52:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: osu-eddi.451
Posted: Fri Jul 12 08:52:00 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 11:48:22 EDT
References: <36600001@waltz>
Organization: Ohio State Univ., CIS Dept., Cols, Oh.
Lines: 45

> 
> Has anyone used the new ExperLisp for the Mac? I remember seeing such 
> a question a few months ago, but no responses. If anyone has seen/used 
> this product, I'd be interested in what you think of it. Also, any 
> suggestions on where I can get it at a discount price?

I have played with ExperLisp a bit.  I would suggest you stay as far away
from the product as you can.  First of all, it is rather buggy.  This might
change in the next releases but I was not impressed.  Secondly, all they
released is a compiler, no interpreter.  The compiler is slow, and does not
produce double-clickable images.  Many of these problems many be fixxed,
I am waiting to see.

Another problem is the lisp dialect itself.  They seems to be trying to
create a CommonLisp compiler, but don't seem to be supporting closures.
This means that this compiler will be more like MacLisp (excuse the pun,
from Dec-20 land), with CommonLisp function names, than CommonLisp.

Finally it doesn't thrill me that ExperLisp has a list price of $500, and
the cheapest discount price I have seen is $289 (Programs Plus, 800-832-3201).
This was listed in this month's MacWorld page 102.

There are two lisp systems I would suggest you looking into.  The first is
Utah's PSL (Portable Standard Lisp).  PSL is a very nice dialect of Lisp
that has been under development at Utah for a number of years.  They
currently have only a small subset of the interpreter done (It will run on a
128K Mac though).  There are plans for bringing up the full PSL compiler and
interpreter.

Secondly a company called Semantic MicroSystems is going to be marketting a
version of Scheme (which conforms to the 1985 Revised Revised Report).  This
version of Scheme was written by Willian Clinger, the editor of the Revised
Revised Report on Scheme.  This should be a very nice product.  It is rather
fast.

Scheme for those of you who don't know is a lexical-scoped lisp that was
developped by Guy Steele and Jerry Sussman at MIT for instruction.  They
designed a langauge that was simple, consistant, and very powerful.

	Cheers,

	Mark Verber, Ohio State University
	uucp: {ihnp4,cbosgd}!osu-eddie!verber
	inet: verber@rutgers.edu
	csnet: verber@ohio-state