defrance@uni2a.unige.ch (04/11/91)
Is there anybody at Texas Instruments who could tell us what is the future of PC-SCHEME and other related AI products from TI? PC-SCHEME v. 3.0 (and the protected mode version 4.0) has been around since 1988. It is (at least I think) still sold by TI (most "Programmers' shops" show it on their cathalogues). It complains to R3RS and has many enhancements such as scoops and other extensions useful on PC's. This, the low price and the great documentation makes it the best implementation of SCHEME on PC's and probably the most used Scheme in Computer Science courses (on the student side, at least). Now, TI has disclosed its source code for this product and made it available to everybody. More than that, the biggest part of its AI division has vanished. (don't forget that SCHEME has been the platform on which TI has developed AI products for the PC world). Does this mean that PC-SCHEME won't be anymore supported by TI ? In particular, it seems that there are some incompatibilities with the new 486 PC's that make it unusable on these platforms. There are also some PC-SCHEME based packages, such as the Personal Consultant Plus Expert System shell, which has the same problems on 486 PC's and which also hasn't been improved since 1988. Now, this is a package which, even when heavily discounted, costs still more than $2000, and usually application written with it are worth tenth of thousands dollars! It would be very unfair from TI if they aren't willing to fix PC-SCHEME so that these applications could migrate to the new hardware (and beleave me, this kind of soft NEED big and fast computers) . So please, I'd like to know the official position of TI with regard to PC-SCHEME and SCHEME based products, so that we'll be able to decide between throwing away either our expert system or our Compaq Deskpro 486, or just waiting a few monts to get an upgrade. Knowing that we and other people could save a lot of money and a bit of esteem for TI. - massimo - massimo@cuisun.unige.ch
Chris Haynes <chaynes@sunfish.cs.indiana.edu> (04/12/91)
In article <1991Apr11.101601.918@uni2a.unige.ch> defrance@uni2a.unige.ch writes: > >Is there anybody at Texas Instruments who could tell us what is the >future of PC-SCHEME and other related AI products from TI? > >PC-SCHEME v. 3.0 (and the protected mode version 4.0) has been around since >1988. How does one obtain the protected mode version? Does it allow extra memory to be accessed more efficiently? Does it allow extra memory (beyond 640K) to be accessed with no efficiency penalty? That would be great! Does it run on both 286 and 386 machines? >Now, TI has disclosed its source code for this product and made it available >to everybody... Really? Where? Does this mean they've put PC Scheme in the public domain? I find that hard to believe, but if true it would be some consolation for their failure to support it. -- Chris Haynes
tima@agora.rain.com (Tim Anderson) (04/12/91)
In article <1991Apr11.101601.918@uni2a.unige.ch> defrance@uni2a.unige.ch writes: > >Is there anybody at Texas Instruments who could tell us what is the >future of PC-SCHEME and other related AI products from TI? > >... >Now, TI has disclosed its source code for this product and made it available >to everybody... Really? Where can I get this afore mentioned source code??? tima@agora.rain.com