What is the best Open-Source Lisp?
in [Lisp]
|
Prev: Sudoku Solver
Next: lisp database connectivity
From: Edmond Dantes on 21 Feb 2006 09:27 I am looking to delve deeply into Lisp to solve some rather esoteric problems and to do mathematical research into set-theoretic issues. And more. Here are my questions: 1) What is considered the best "most supported" Open Source Lisp for Linux? 2) Are there very wide variations in functionality with all the offers that would create incompatibility issues? 3) How's the database support for Lisp? Is MySQL well supported, and is the API across different implementations of Lisp consistent? 4) How does Lisp function in a web environment? Is is basically CGI? Or are there alternatives, like a 'mod_lisp' module for Apache? 5) Any other helpful injections on your part will be greatly appreciated. 6) Thanks! -Edmond -- -- Edmond Dantes Shameless plugs: http://www.HardIndustry.com http://www.giftsantiquescollectables.com http://www.sillylife.com http://www.BankOrLoan.com http://www.PetzFriendz.com
From: Stefan Nobis on 21 Feb 2006 11:33 Edmond Dantes <edmond(a)le-comte-de-monte-cristo.biz> writes: > 1) What is considered the best "most supported" Open Source Lisp for Linux? Hmmm... I would say SBCL (very good Linux support, native threads,...). But others, like CLisp, have also some strengths. > 2) Are there very wide variations in functionality with all the offers that > would create incompatibility issues? I miss portability layers for threads and sockets (there are some libs, but no single very full featured and widley adopted one), so in these areas there might be some more portability issues. Most other areas (MOP, databases, file handling,...) seem to be not much of a problem (to me at least). > 3) How's the database support for Lisp? Is MySQL well supported, and is the > API across different implementations of Lisp consistent? There is CLSQL (http://clsql.b9.com/). Only CLisp seems to suffer from not be supported (but there is CFFI with an UFFI compatibility layer -- CFFI supports CLisp and CLSQL uses UFFI). > 4) How does Lisp function in a web environment? Is is basically CGI? Or are > there alternatives, like a 'mod_lisp' module for Apache? There are quite a few choises: There is mod_lisp and mod_lisp2, Araneida, portalbe AllegroServe and maybe more (as a basis for an application server). And there are quite some libraries/frameworks like UCW (uncommon web), TBNL, WebActions,... Have a look at http://cliki.net http://common-lisp.net http://cl-user.net -- Stefan.
From: netytan on 21 Feb 2006 12:11 On the CL front I like Steal Bank Common Lisp; it's free and well supported, works great with emacs & slime and I've read that in the next version you'll be able to produce stand-alone exe's. In it's favor its fast and stable. I've never had any problems with deviation from the standard which is always good :). It's a really nice piece of software: it's a clean up version of CMUCL, which is itself a very nice CL. I'm not a fan of CLisp, GCL is coming along nicely but I don't think its reached the CL standard yet. http://sbcl.sourceforge.net/ http://www.cons.org/cmucl/ http://clisp.cons.org/ http://www.gnu.org/software/gcl/gcl.html On the Scheme front I like Petite Chez Scheme; it's free but it's commercial so not open source, that said it's very clean and stable which is why I use it. It's standard compliant and then adds a little but as long as you stick to the standard you can use any of the well known and stable Scheme compilers to compile to an exe. http://scheme.com/ http://www.call-with-current-continuation.org/ Finally there's also newLisp. I haven't used it but I've head some good things about it. You can't compile but it's certainly fast enough for most things but you can call C code if you need to work faster - it's in the same speed league as other interpreted languages. In it's favor it comes with all the libraries and functions you need for everyday things, which is always useful, I think :). http://www.newlisp.org/ Not much support here though, it's quite a small community. Take care, Mark.
From: Thomas A. Russ on 21 Feb 2006 13:23 Edmond Dantes <edmond(a)le-comte-de-monte-cristo.biz> writes: Taking a few of these > Here are my questions: > > 1) What is considered the best "most supported" Open Source Lisp for Linux? I would go with CMUCL or SBCL for this. > 2) Are there very wide variations in functionality with all the offers that > would create incompatibility issues? Not really. If you keep to the standard, your code should run on any Common Lisp implementation. Now, some lisp implementations are better at particular optimizations than others, but that only affects runtime, not program correctness. CMUCL and SBCL are execellent at numeric code optimization. CLISP has a very fast BIGNUM implementation. > 3) How's the database support for Lisp? Is MySQL well supported, and is the > API across different implementations of Lisp consistent? Yes. And the database API is pretty standard if you use CL-SQL as your access layer. > 4) How does Lisp function in a web environment? Is is basically CGI? Or are > there alternatives, like a 'mod_lisp' module for Apache? There are several alternatives. One is to just run the lisp as the server application. Two of the approaches that I've used are CL-HTTP and Portable AllegroServer (portable aserve) I believe there are perhaps one or two others. There is a mod_lisp available. > 5) Any other helpful injections on your part will be greatly appreciated. > > 6) Thanks! > > -Edmond > > -- > -- Edmond Dantes > Shameless plugs: > http://www.HardIndustry.com > http://www.giftsantiquescollectables.com > http://www.sillylife.com > http://www.BankOrLoan.com > http://www.PetzFriendz.com > -- Thomas A. Russ, USC/Information Sciences Institute
From: Edmond Dantes on 21 Feb 2006 19:14
Thomas A. Russ wrote: > Edmond Dantes <edmond(a)le-comte-de-monte-cristo.biz> writes: .... >> 2) Are there very wide variations in functionality with all the offers >> that would create incompatibility issues? > > Not really. If you keep to the standard, your code should run on any > Common Lisp implementation. Now, some lisp implementations are better > at particular optimizations than others, but that only affects runtime, > not program correctness. > > CMUCL and SBCL are execellent at numeric code optimization. CLISP has a > very fast BIGNUM implementation. Interesting. I take it that CMUCL and SBCL can compile Lisp as well? And is the compilation to native or intermediate "bytecode"? Not sure if I will run into a need for really large numbers, but you never know. ;-) >> 3) How's the database support for Lisp? Is MySQL well supported, and is >> the API across different implementations of Lisp consistent? > > Yes. And the database API is pretty standard if you use CL-SQL as your > access layer. Nice. >> 4) How does Lisp function in a web environment? Is is basically CGI? Or >> are there alternatives, like a 'mod_lisp' module for Apache? > > There are several alternatives. One is to just run the lisp as the > server application. Two of the approaches that I've used are > CL-HTTP and Portable AllegroServer (portable aserve) > I believe there are perhaps one or two others. Know if they are capable of performing in a high load environment? > There is a mod_lisp available. Ok, that's good to know. I'll take a look. Though, I am leaning strongly towards using Lisp for the backend decision making and processing/intelligence, and let PHP/Apache do what it does best. Thanks for the tips. -- -- "Edmond Dantes - CMC" Shameless plugs: http://www.weddingbelljoy.com http://www.ideas4yourhome.com http://www.GardeningWorm.com http://www.workappliance.com http://www.InteriorWorkz.com Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services ---------------------------------------------------------- ** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY ** ---------------------------------------------------------- http://www.usenet.com |