gmark@ihlpf.ATT.COM (Stewart) (05/20/88)
Does anyone have information as to where I could pick up a nice language to run on the UNIX-PC so we can develop an expert system? What are your recommendations or observations? Thanks in advance for being part of a new frontier!!! - Mark G. Mark Stewart ATT_BTL, Naperville, Ill. ix1g266 ixlpq!gms (312)979-0914 (please include phone in response)
alex@umbc3.UMD.EDU (Alex S. Crain) (05/23/88)
In article <4814@ihlpf.ATT.COM> gmark@ihlpf.ATT.COM (Stewart) writes: >Does anyone have information as to where I could pick up a nice >language to run on the UNIX-PC so we can develop an expert system? I've developed several mid-sized (1000-2500 lines) lisp projects using Koyto Common Lisp on my 3b1. The speed of KCL on the unixpc is comparable to that of a VAX 11/785 under normal load (15 users), and substancially better then the VAX if the VAX's load average goes over 2.0 (more and more often, of late). [this response with 1-2 unixpc user windows] I am running the stock KCL with an old distribution of the changes from utexas.edu. I set up a lisp login, which kicks off lisp in an emacs shell, I have played with emacs to put KCL help in the emacs help menu, allow file system access from lisp, etc. The biggest problem with lisp on the unixpc is the virtual memory allocation limit (4meg) on the unixpc. This is a hardware limitation that restricts the size of a running program, and the 4meg limit leaves KCL with about 1.2meg of useable memory if you leave out the compiler, maybe 800k with the compiler installed. This sounds like a lot, but the compiler runs out of memory on input files >10-15K. KCL is a big program, and eats a fair bit of disk space. du says 16500 blocks for executables + sources (no .o files) the executables alone are over 3meg (2 main executables, w & w/out compiler loaded), 67meg HD or a dedicated machine are recommended. No less than 2meg memory, I am saving for the other 2meg. Porting KCL to the 3b1 is not difficult, Although my records are something of a mess. I intend to do it again from scratch to include the new diffs from utexas, which look dynamite from what I've seen. I'm also working hard on improving the interface, by tightening the communication with emacs and adding a structure editor that will run in an emacs window. Since school wants a copy for the VAX(s), I should get a fair bit done this summer, I'm figuring to have the above setup by August. I will be happy to share my work with anyone, but I recommend getting porting instructions/code elsewhere, as I heard that there is a much cleaner port than mine, and I won't port it again for another month at least. KCL is available via anonymous ftp from rascal.isc.utexas.edu, along with the utexas diffs (akcl.tar) which I highly recommend. There is a licence agreement that says that you can only redistribute kcl as unmodified sources, which I no longer have. As far as I'm concerned, KCL on my 3b1 is like a perpetual wet dream. It's full CL, comes with debugger, stepper and trace package, and runs on a computer that I can afford. After using it heavily for 8 months, I am convinced that this is the best lisp development package that I can hope to aquire in the near future. I have seen some of the new developments on another system, and I think that in a couple months I'll be just as amazed as I was when it first ran. (benchmarks put KCL slightly ahead of Lucid, I think) I would love to hear comments anyone else who is using lisp on these machines. -- :alex. nerwin!alex@umbc3.umd.edu alex@umbc3.umd.edu