dunn@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (John Dunn) (06/14/90)
In article <835@anaxagoras.ils.nwu.edu> cearl@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu (Charles Earl) writes: >We will be developing multimedia (e.g. video, animation, digitized images,etc.) >based educational software using ibm RS/6000s and 386's as development >platforms -- assume UNIX environment. Initial development will most likely > occur on the RISC machines but >the 386's are intended target (we will actually be using 386s for some months >until RISCs arrive). > >We have been a MacII shop, doing most development in Mac Common Lisp. >I am trying to decide on an appropriate development environment and >would like feedback from the experts. We would like to use >Lisp/Scheme, but Smalltalk, C++, C, etc. would be ok if no other >options for graphics environments exist. > If you are most comfortable working in an interactive Lisp environment, but you need to produce real-world working code, you might consider Laboratory Microsystem's 386/UR Forth. It runs in protected mode, has a first rate virtual memory facility, and is faster then C by a fair degree. Several times I have gone to assembley language for loop-critical components, only to find I had a 2* savings - the speed of this product is difficult to believe. Compile speed is likewise considerably faster than you are likely to see with C or Pascal - especially when you include link time. I believe LMI has a compatible version that works under UNIX. They definitely have one that works under OS/2, and have made noises about bringing out a Windows 3 version. My own experience was similar to yours - I had worked in a Lisp developemt mode until there was enough groundwork to take the project to a real-world releasable version. After close to 6 months of false starts, I tried out 386 UR/Forth. The only thing that wasn't available was some means of treating data as objects - I had become use to Flavors in Lisp. Eventually, after an exaustive search of the available Forth code (there is a mountain of it, but it is mostly unusable IMHO), I gave up, bit the bullet and wrote a object-type memory manager with very fast automatic garbage collection. This whole system has worked so well for me that now, even if there were to be a Lisp package around that included a reasonable means of delivering the finished software to the end user, I would stick with 386 Forth. Oh yes, the Memory Object Package is in the Public Domain - You will find it on the UR/Forth BBS system that you will have access to when you buy any of the UR/Forths. -John Dunn