Re: [Gcl-devel] *features*

[Camm Maguire]

Greetings!

Michael Koehne <address@hidden> writes:

> Moin David,
> 
> > >  i tried to reach CVS over the last days - without any luck ;(
> > >  it looks as if my CVS version is clear out of date - the newest
> > >  file is from 24 nov ... CVS/Root is :
> > >      :pserver:address@hidden:/cvsroot/gcl
> > That won't work now.  Security has been tightened.
> > See http://savannah.gnu.org/cvs/?group=gcl
> 
>   thanks for that URL - download was fine, the *features* problem
>   claiming my system to be a BSD368 with MC68020 still exist and
>   looks trivial to patch. Questions here :
> 
>   the other GNU Common Lisp's I tested [1] had every symbol in the
>   *feature* list prefixed with a ":". So UNIX should be :UNIX, even
>   if any of the reader macro's ignored the (non)existence of the ":",
>   when asking for #+UNIX. I now wonder, if the ":" prefix is necesary
>   by the ansi specs or just by the beauty of source.
> 
> with kind regards,
>   Michael
> 
> [1]: GCL, ECL, CLISP, ARMEDBEAR - are there any other Lisp's qualifying
>   for being free in term of GNU and Common Lisp in terms of ANSI ?
>   elisp is the most common GNU lisp - but its not Common Lisp ;)

There is the license, which in the above cases is one of the GNU
licenses, and then there is the question of the software being a GNU
package.  GCL is (to my understanding) the official Common Lisp for
the GNU project.  What this means in practice is of course another
thing :-).  In fact, right after Dr. Schelter died, and RMS was
looking for a replacement GCL admin, I suggested that he consider
replacing gcl with clisp in the GNU project.  He declined to let go of
GCL, apparently due to his perception of some of its strengths, so
after a few back and forth emails, he suggested I try to maintain it,
and I agreed.  At the time I knew absolutely nothing about lisp :-),
but admired all the generations of work put in to making
mathematically advanced software packages available to the public, and
didn't want to see this go to waste.  A strange turn of events ....

> -- 
>   mailto:address@hidden             UNA:+.? 'CED+2+:::Linux:2.4.22'UNZ+1'
>   http://www.xml-edifact.org/           CETERUM CENSEO WINDOWS ESSE DELENDAM
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Gcl-devel mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gcl-devel
> 
> 
> 

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