[Gcl-devel] Re: [Maxima] GCL 2.6.5 is released

[Camm Maguire]

Greetings, and thanks for your feedback!

Milan Lukic <address@hidden> writes:

> Hello Camm,
> 
> I just wanted to let you know that I installed gcl-2.6.5 on a
> Slackware 9.0 Linux. Here are the options used to run configure:
> 
> /configure --prefix=/home/milan/CAS/
> --infodir=$PREFIX/gcl-2.6.5/info/ --mandir=$PREFIX/gcl-2.6.5/man/
> --enable-notify=no --enable-emacsdir=/usr/share/emacs/21.2/ --with-x
> --enable-readline --enable-ansi
>     The reason for --enable-notify=no is that I am on a phone line,
>               i.e. did the installation off-line
>               

> Problems: 
>    The "help" command is not working - it is looking for 
>        "/home/milan/CAS/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/src/gcl.info."
>        With gcl-2.6.4, it is looking for
>        "/home/milan/CAS/maxima-5.9.0.9beta2/gcl.info."
>           In other words, gcl seem to be compiled to look for the
>                       gcl.info file in the current working directory.

Please note that you can set si::*info-paths* to contain the correct
directory containing gcl.info.  I believe Vadim has posted separately
about this on the maxima list.

>                       
>       The Xgcl seem to be working fine. However, the make command (I
>       suppose) creates (in the $GCLDIR) a broken symbolic link 
>       /unixport/init_xgcl.lsp.tmp, because there is no file
>       init_gcl.lsp.tmp
>       

Yes, this just needs adding to the .INTERMEDIATE target in the
unixport/makefile.   we intend to clean all this up in 2.7.x.


> I just also tried to compile Maxima with gcl-2.6.5, following the
> instructions in INSTALL.lisp. It seems to fail to create a file
> maxima in src/binary-gcl. Is that the image that was supposed to be
> dumped, as mentioned  in the last step in INSTALL.lisp? 
> However, in that last step, executing (user::run) produced  a
> working maxima session, while (maxima-dump) returned NIL. Also, I
> had to exit, and restart gcl after (maxima-compile). In other words,
> the Step 7 in the INSTALL.lisp does not seem to be optional.
> 

Not sure about INSTALL.lisp -- what is wrong with the makefiles?  Is
maxima working on an alternate installation method?  These questions
are best referred to the maxima experts.

Please keep us posted if you find bugs that need fixing in GCL.

Take care,

> Hope this feedback might be useful in the future development of both
> gcl and maxima.
> 
> Milan Lukic
> 
>        
>        
> 
> Camm Maguire [17/08/04 19:04 -0400]:
> > The GCL team is happy to announce the release of version 2.6.5, the
> > latest achievement in the 'stable' series. This release is a minor
> > modification to version 2.6.4. From the changelog:
> > 
> >     * New gmp_wrappers.{c,h} files that prevent all GBC within gmp,
> >       obviating the need for gmp patches and a local gmp
> >       configure. FIXME -- extend to all gmp functions in a systematic
> >       way, and write header information for future use in the
> >       compiler, making sure that plt.c carries the needed gmp symbols
> >       at this point
> > 
> >     * dynsysgmp on by default; configure backs off to local gmp
> >       configure and build automatically if needed either because gmp
> >       not present or patched symbols are needed
> > 
> >     * autodetect and set the _start symbol when using gprof
> > 
> >     * Fix (setf (get ...) ...) return bug when interpreted
> > 
> >     * Fix overwrite end of sgc_type_map bug
> > 
> >     * Versioned depends on binutils-dev manually installed by Debian build 
> > process
> > 
> > As an example of the recent performance enhancements in GCL, Matt Kaufmann, 
> > one
> > of the ACL2 co-authors, reports significantly improved timings for the ACL2
> > regression suite.  When ACL2 2.8 was released, GCL was in pre-release mode 
> > for
> > 2.6.2, and provided the following regression suite timings as reported on
> > http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/moore/acl2/v2-8/installation.html:
> > 
> >     * Gnu Common Lisp (GCL), Version 2.6.1-34 (unreleased):
> >       11005.520u  99.530s 3:10:45.33 97.0% 0+0k 0+0io 9555249pf+0w
> >     * Allegro Common Lisp, Version 6.2:
> >       12289.340u 134.340s 3:35:22.82 96.1% 0+0k 0+0io 9540266pf+0w
> >     * CMU Common Lisp (CMUCL), Version 18e:
> >       11303.590u 246.730s 3:29:11.40 92.0% 0+0k 0+0io 8906120pf+0w
> >     * Lispworks Common Lisp, Version 4.2.7:
> >       [No time available, but at one time was tested at about 72% slower 
> > than GCL.]
> >     * CLISP, Version 2.33:*
> >       52591u     611s    15:31       98%
> >     * Times above for CLISP are approximate [you don't want to know...]
> > 
> > Since version 2.6.3, a reasonably comparable calculation on the same machine
> > takes about 7800 user seconds (on a slightly updated ACL2).
> > -- 
> > Camm Maguire                                                address@hidden
> > ==========================================================================
> > "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Baha'u'llah
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > 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