RICHER@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA (Mark Richer) (07/02/86)
SCHEME and COMMONLISP ********************* On June 10th, 1986 I sent out a request for feedback on the language Scheme. In particular, I was interested in how appropriate the language would be for a large-scale development effort in ICAI versus Commonlisp. Implicit in this question are concerns about available implementations including development environments, efficiency, compactness, ease of learning, portability, etc. Below is a summary of comments. If you want to see the whole file of messages (13) I will send it to you upon request. Advantages of Scheme (compared to other Lisps including Commonlisp): ******************************************************************** Simple Consistent Small (easy to learn and can be implemented well on small, standard machines) Elegant Semantics of language are clean Closures and lexical scoping are handled well Migration to (i.e., learning) other dialects of Lisp should not be a problem Portable (but someone has to have implemented it on the target machine) Supports object-oriented programming and multiple processes For above reasons, it is very appropriate for learners, especially if the goal is to teach basic principles in computer science A net address to reach experts: SCHEME-TEAM%OZ.AI.MIT.EDU@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU Advantages of Commonlisp ************************ Widely accepted standard Large, growing user community Lisp language development is concentrated on Commonlisp now Best programming environments do/will support Commonlisp Many built-in functions and features (overload beginner, but very useful) Portable (obvious reasons to expect good implementations, compilers, etc.) Commonlisp does require more memory than Scheme, but given the increasing availability of inexpensive large memories that issue might vanish. There is a Commonlisp mailing list, Common-Lisp@SU-AI.ARPA. I assume you need to contact Common-Lisp-Request@SU-AI.ARPA to get on the list, unless you have access to it through a local bboard. Other comments -------------- Scheme IS a dialect of Lisp, an UnCommonLisp though. Proust, an ICAI program, is implemented in T, a dialect of Scheme. Ableson and Sussman's "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (MIT Press, 1985) is highly recommended for everyone to read and is also suggested as a text to teach computer science (Scheme is the language used throughout the book). -------