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[Gcl-devel] Re: [Maxima] Why do we need gcl at all?


From: Camm Maguire
Subject: [Gcl-devel] Re: [Maxima] Why do we need gcl at all?
Date: 13 Dec 2001 14:33:26 -0500

Greetings!  Believe me, I've been thinking a lot about this question
before deciding to volunteer for this.  In my mind, there is
sufficient reason to continue GCL, for the following reasons:

1) Very important that maxima have a *open*, non-commercial, stable,
   and fast lisp on which to run.  IMHO, one can never count on
   corporations to safeguard the future of software, but an interested
   volunteer development effort can preserve working code at a high
   level of capability, and *for the primary benefit of the users, who
   are often the coders* over a long period of time.  This saves us
   all a lot of effort by preserving the investment we expend in
   learning to use the software in the first place.  I learned
   emacs/gcc, etc. in grad school 15 years ago, and am still reaping
   the benefits of the time I put in doing so.

2) As compared to Clisp, GCL is much faster, and is likely to remain
   so due to its design.

3) As compared to cmulisp, GCL is potentially much more portable, and
   is likely to remain so due to its design.

4) In sum, it really just boiled down to the design of GCL.  Compiling
   to C, and relying on C compilers to provide speed and portability
   is just a good idea, IMHO, and I'd hate to see that wasted.

Take care,

address@hidden writes:

> In a previous message to the list, I saw a bench mark that indicated
> that clisp was only about 30% slower then gcl.  Wouldnt our time
> be better served by building the stuff in clisp that gcl has,
> which I thought was tk support, and then putting our time into cmucl
> and making it work on more platforms?  clisp is a gpl'd product also,
> works on many more platforms than gcl.  Plus, it implements CLOS,
> and many more features then gcl.
> Dan Stanger
> _______________________________________________
> Maxima mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://www.math.utexas.edu/mailman/listinfo/maxima
> 
> 

-- 
Camm Maguire                                            address@hidden
==========================================================================
"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Baha'u'llah



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