ganesh@sbcs.UUCP (Ganesh Gopalakrishnan) (03/05/85)
I would like to invite the readers comments (and concrete
information) on the idea of a CLU to Lisp compiler.
I see the following as strong arguments for having one. The
arguments are from the point of view of a person who REQUIRES Lisp
code, ultimately:
(a) CLU provides a rich set of abstraction mechanisms and
compile-time checks. Often it is the ideal language for
programming. (e.g. if one were to write abstract data-type
definitions, CLU is superior to Lisp, in my opinion). Most such
checks are absent in a Lisp environment. Also, it is hard to
guarantee/enforce the concealment of the data representations, in
Lisp.
(b) Due to the semantic closeness of Lisp and CLU, (both can
support object oriented programming, both allow infinite and
recursive data-structures, etc.), writing such a compiler does not
seem to be hard. It ought to be possible to make the generated Lisp
code very readable and understandable; (the relationships between
the CLU source and Lisp target must be preserved as far as
possible.) This opens up the attractive possibility of debugging in
the Lisp environment, too. (Interpretation as opposed to the often
slow Compile->Execute cycle).
(c) Possible to interface/mix systems written in CLU and in
Lisp (e.g. Reve theorem prover[CLU] and RRL theorem prover[Lisp]).
Is there such a compiler in the public domain ?
Many thanks, in advance.