jtn@potomac.ads.com (John T. Nelson) (04/03/91)
Some of the work I'm doing in the future may involve porting a rather sophisticated LISP environment to the NeXT. Before I plunge headlong into this project, I'd like to know first if there is any need or interest in LISP environments on the NeXT. Oh sure we all know that Allegro has been ported there, but the question is, what sort of real needs are there for LISP and LISP/AI development environments on the NeXT? I'm interested in everyone's opinions, particularly if you are using LISP or would like to see a sophisticated LISP environment on the NeXT. We're talking about a real environment here too, not just a command line LISP interpreter. Specifically: 1) How many NeXTs are used in research/academic environments and how many people are doing AI/LISP hacking on NeXTs? How about corporate environments? 2) What shortcomings are there in Allegro that people would like to see added? 3) What is the ideal LISP environment for you? How much support do you need for the NeXT toolKits/class libraries? Do you need foreign function calls? Do you need support for CLIM/CLOS? Would you like to see an Emacs style editor and object inspector? How about on-line documentation (like Symbolics Document Examiner)? Class browsers? Dataflow analyzers? Run-time support aids? How about applications like mailers and the means to connect via networks to other machines like Suns via NFS or other protocols? Do you want to access data on a central server? What other operating systems would you like to talk to? 4) What applications are being developed in LISP on NeXTs? How many of you out there are doing work in LISP and AI on the NeXT? I'm assuming that "AI" is the major applications area for LISP. Are these commercial products you're working on? Perhaps in-house research? Do you deliver these applications in LISP and on the same platform you have developed them on? 5) If you had the opportunity to buy a LISP envionment on the NeXT, what standards and compatibility with other standards would you like to see in it? What capabilities? Should it be compatible with Allegro (probably)? 6) How much would you pay for it? Is money as tight at your place as it is here? Would you buy a NeXT if it had a really nifty environment like the Symbolics? Thanks for your responses and enjoy! - John