chewy@Apple.COM (Paul Snively) (10/03/90)
Lisp fans, Pursuant to a lengthy conversation in this forum regarding Lisp syntax, in which a variety of syntax packages were mentioned and discussed, I'm pleased to be able to announce that Apple's Legal Beagles have apparently seen fit for us to release GLisp. GLisp stands for Generalized Lisp, and it's sole purpose in life is to support the (relatively painless) additions of new syntaxes to Common Lisp. As shipped, GLisp includes support for three dialects: Common Lisp as we know and love it; PLisp, which is "Pattern-matching Lisp," a rule-based system geared towards the support of new dialects; and MLisp, or "Meta-Lisp," which is an Algol-like syntax. Once you learn PLisp (in particular), it becomes quite an easy matter for the most part to add still other syntaxes to GLisp's repertoire. The process is a translation process. That is, you write a source file in one of GLisp's dialects and parse the file to produce good ol' Common Lisp code, which you can then load/compile/further obfuscate/whatever. GLisp and PLisp are well-documented. MLisp, on the other hand, isn't--but the PLisp source code is provided, and it's fairly easy to read. Speaking of documentation, there are a few things you should know: The documentation is in Microsoft Word 4.0 format for the Macintosh, so when you extract the documentation files from the compressed tar archive, you'll have to get 'em to a Mac and make the file type be WDBN and the file creator be MSWD. The compressed tar archive was created on a Macintosh, so spaces in file/ directory names were converted to underscores (_). If you're going back to a Mac, just change 'em all back to spaces. If you're porting to something else, you'll have to change all of the pathnames in the code anyway. Speaking of porting... the code is highly portable. The only platform dependencies that I'm aware of are the pathnames, and even their use is limited. Now for the part you've been waiting for: to get the stuff, FTP to: apple.com, directory pub/dts/mac/lisp, file glisp.tar.Z It is a compressed tar archive, so remember to be in binary mode when you do the FTP. Please feel free to send comments, questions, etc. to me (chewy@apple.com). It's not actually my job to support this (it's not even part of my job to be on the Internet), but I'll try to respond to all queries. Thanks, Paul Snively Macintosh Developer Technical Support Apple Computer, Inc. chewy@apple.com
chewy@apple.com (Paul Snively) (10/03/90)
Pursuant to an earlier thread about Lisp syntax and the numerous variations thereof (mostly RLisp and MLisp), it pleases me to be able to announce that I've been permitted to put GLisp up for anonymous FTP to apple.com.
GLisp stands for Generalized Lisp, and is a system for supporting an arbitrary number of syntax dialects in Common Lisp. GLisp currently supports the normal Common Lisp syntax; PLisp ("Pattern-matching Lisp," a dialect for writing source-code rewrite rules); and "MLisp," an Algol-like syntax.
The documentation is in Microsoft Word 4.0 for the Macintosh, so when you extract it, you'll have to get it onto a Mac and change the file type to WDBN and the file creator to MSWD.
Also, the tar archive was created on a Macintosh, so spaces in file/folder names were converted to underscores. If you're using a Mac, just change them back to spaces. If you aren't using a Mac, you're going to have to edit all of the pathnames anyway.
Speaking of porting, editing the pathnames should be all that it takes--the code is highly portable.
To get the package, FTP to apple.com and look for pub/dts/mac/lisp/glisp.tar.Z
Please send comments, question, etc. to me. It's not my job to support this, so I may not get back to you as quickly as you'd like. I'll do the best I can, though. Sorry 'bout that.
__________________________________________________________________________
Paul Snively
Macintosh Developer Technical Support
Apple Computer, Inc.
chewy@apple.com
Just because I work for Apple Computer, Inc. doesn't mean that I believe
what they believe, or vice-versa.
__________________________________________________________________________ralph@laas.fr (Ralph P. Sobek) (10/17/90)
I said to myself: the name rings a bell! Then I got out my trusty old "GLISP User's Guide" by Gordan S. Novak Jr. It also is a generalized Lisp which runs over a variety of Lisp platforms. I do not know if it has been ported to Common Lisp. "GLISP provides both Pascal-like and English-like syntakes...." Wouldn't it be nice if we would not have to reuse existing names? Of course, that is a difficult problem. It's nice to see that "MLisp" keeps its meaning in <10552@goofy.Apple.COM>. This is like when Lucid, I believe, reinvented QLisp, not knowing that it was a famous AI language from their neighborhood well known in the Lisp/AI domain. Oh well! No flames intended. -- Ralph P. Sobek Disclaimer: The above ruminations are my own. ralph@laas.fr Addresses are ordered by importance. ralph@laas.uucp, or ...!uunet!laas!ralph If all else fails, try: sobek@eclair.Berkeley.EDU =============================================================================== Reliable software should kill people reliably! -Andy Mickel, Pascal News #13,78
Chewy@cup.portal.com (Paul Frederick Snively) (10/18/90)
ralph@laas.fr (Ralph P. Sobek) writes:
[Comments about two different GLisp systems deleted.]
Yes, it is a shame about name collisions. What's even more ironic is that
the author of the GLisp that I made available notes the existence of the
other GLisp in his documentation, and says that he doesn't think that there
will be much overlap in usage. Oops.
Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
By the way, for those of you who have had problems properly extracting the
documentation from the archive file, my apologies. I will put up a
separate documentation archive that should be easier to read/print in the near
future. At the moment, everyone in Apple Developer Technical Support is knee
deep in writing sample code for System 7.0, the beta release of which is
imminent (read: days away).
Thanks for your patience!
Paul Snively
Local Lisp Lothario
Apple Developer Technical Support
Apple Computer, Inc.
1st Choice: Paul_Snively.DTS@gateway.qm.apple.com
2nd: CHEWBACCA@applelink.apple.com
3rd: chewy@apple.com
4th: Chewy@cup.portal.com