kent@unc.UUCP (Doug Kent ) (08/27/86)
I am an experienced C programmer interested in learning lisp. My interest
is inspired by the Symbolics graphics system, written in lisp, which exhibits
wonderful flexibility and power. I wonder if anyone would be interested
in answering a couple questions?
1) Is such flexibility and power a trait unique to lisp, or are the Symbolics
programmers simply very good (or both)?
2) How does lisp compare to C in terms of speed and other characteristics?
Thanks. If I get many responses, I will post to the net.
Doug Kent
Psychology Dept.
University of N. Carolina
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514
919-966-3540
... decvax!mcnc!unc!kent
**********************************************************
***** Geniuses are so crazy cause they know too much *****
**********************************************************jjacobs@well.UUCP (Jeffrey Jacobs) (08/30/86)
In <246@unc.unc.UUCP>, Doug Kent writes: >I am an experienced C programmer interested in learning lisp. My interest >is inspired by the Symbolics graphics system, written in lisp, which exhibits >wonderful flexibility and power. I wonder if anyone would be interested >in answering a couple questions? >1) Is such flexibility and power a trait unique to lisp, or are the Symbolics > programmers simply very good (or both)? >2) How does lisp compare to C in terms of speed and other characteristics? Such flexibility and power are very common in LISP and are by no means unique to Symbolics. (Whether it's UNIQUE to lisp is a different question which could start a giant war). There are also 'different' forms of flexibility and power. See some of the other forms of LISP, such as FRANZ, INTER-, UCI, etc. LISP in general is a wonderful language... For areas in which you can make a comparision between LISP and C, C will generally be faster. Such areas are difficult to find. You can compare arithmetic operations and will find that C will be faster, but most of the features that are intrinsic to LISP are not intrinsic to C, i.e. functions on lists, dynamic macro expansion. You might want to take a look at XLISP, a freely distributed LISP written in very vanilla C. It runs on most PC's, including IBM/MS-DOS, Mac and ATARI. It is widely available, both in executable and in source form. You can get it from the Boston Computer Society BBS and CompuServe's AI Expert forum. Or you can get it directly from the author. Send a floppy and $10 to: David Betz 114 Davenport Ave. Manchester, NH 03103 David is now charging $10 for handling. You can mention my name. Jeffrey M. Jacobs CONSART Systems Inc. Technical and Managerial Consultants P.O. Box 3016, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 (213)376-3802 CIS:75076,2603 BIX:jeffjacobs USENET: well!jjacobs
belmonte@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Matthew Belmonte) (09/08/86)
In article <1696@well.UUCP>, jjacobs@well.UUCP (Jeffrey Jacobs) writes: > You might want to take a look at XLISP, a freely distributed LISP > written in very vanilla C. It runs on most PC's, including IBM/MS-DOS, > Mac and ATARI. It is widely available, both in executable and > in source form. You can get it from the Boston Computer Society > BBS and CompuServe's AI Expert forum. for anyone else out there who uses os-9, there is an os-9 version (as opposed to the above-mentioned "very vanilla" version) available in the os-9 SIG on compuserve. the level 1 version, however, is **very** stripped-down due to limits on memory. -- Matthew Belmonte ARPA: <belmonte@rocky.cs.cornell.edu> <belmonte@svax.cs.cornell.edu> BITNET: <d25y@cornella> UUCP: ..!decvax!duke!duknbsr!mkb