caroma@ai.mit.edu (12/01/90)
I thought the consensus was that Allegro Common Lisp was no longer to be
bundled, but now I see this:
Taken from AI Expert magazine, Dec 1990, p 66, w/out permission:
Allegro CL for Next
Franz, inc., the Berkeley, Calif. LISP company, announced that its
Allegro Common LISP v. 3.1 will be included with v. 2.0 of the Next
system software for Nextstation and Nextcube computers. Franz also
introduced an Allegro CL run-time option for applications on Next
platforms.
Allegro CL is an object-oriented development tool featuring incre-
mental compliation and debugging facilities. The new run-time
option is a version of Allegro CL without development features such
as the compiler and debugger.
Allegro CL v. 3.1 for Next is available from Franz for $1,500;
Allegro CL v. 4.0 will be ported to Next in 1991. For more
information, contact Franz Inc., 1995 University Ave., Berkeley,
Calif. 94704, (415) 548-3600.
Anybody (e.g. locals) figured out what's really going on here?
Another question: How does this environment compare to, say, Coral's
Common lisp for the Mac, now distributed by Apple? (I heard a rumor
that it ran about 30 times slower...) Is it well integrated with the
NeXT? Is it a LispM-like environment?
Thanks,
caroma@ai.mit.edumikel@Apple.COM (Mikel Evins) (12/01/90)
In article <12137@life.ai.mit.edu> caroma@ai.mit.edu writes: >Another question: How does this environment compare to, say, Coral's >Common lisp for the Mac, now distributed by Apple? (I heard a rumor >that it ran about 30 times slower...) Is it well integrated with the >NeXT? Is it a LispM-like environment? Firt of all, let me say right up front that I do *not* speak for Apple Computer, Inc. on this matter. Furthermore, speaking purely as a Mac enthusiast *and* a NeXT enthusiast, I intend to give you my *personal* opinion about the two Lisps. I use Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp every day at work. I love it. It is my primary development environment, and, so long as I am developing on the Mac, I prefer it that way. I bought a old-style NeXT cube partly because of the possibility that Lisp wouldn't be bundled with the new machines. Thus, I have Franz's Allegro Common Lisp on the NeXT. I have been frankly disappointed so far. I really had wanted to use the Lisp on the NeXT, but it just isn't well enough integrated with the machine's system software. On the Mac you can just evaluate (oneof *window*) and get a window on the screen. Menus, dialog boxes, and other interface elements are similarly accessible. On the NeXT, there is a rather clumsy interface between Lisp and Interface Builder through foreign function calls. It seems to work, but is not anything like as convenient as the interface control on the Mac. Now, don't get me wrong. I love my NeXT. It is my machine of choice when I go home for the day. I use my NeXT cube probably five times as much as the Mac II cx I have at home. I love Interface Builder. It is actually more convenient in some ways than the development tools in Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp. However, I wouldn't choose Franz's Lisp and Interface Builder in their present forms as my primary development environment. Right now IB and Objective-C are definitely my tools of choice. (And what am I developing? Why, a Lisp programming environment, of course. Lisp is still my first choice in languages, so, my solution to the problem is to write one). As for performance, my tests indicate that Franz's product is around 27% faster than MACL running on a Mac IIcx, or about half the speed of MACL running on a Mac IIfx. (This assumes the Gabriel benchmarks, Franz's product running on a NeXT N1000 cube with system software 1.0). In short, I would prefer to use Lisp as my primary development platform on any machine. So far, I don't feel that I can do that on the NeXT, so I use Objective-C instead. Performance probably isn't as bad as you have heard, but it isn't a barn-burner either. Maybe it will be better in 3.1, or maybe NeXT System Software 2.0 will improve performance significantly.
carlson@Franz.COM (Bill Carlson) (12/04/90)
Hello and thanks for your posting. I am responding to the first part
of your message.
The Dec 1990 AI Expert article was incorrect. Briefly, Allegro CL is
*not* bundled with NeXT 2.0. However, users who bought NeXT v. 1.0
may receive from NeXT ACL 3.1 which is the current release and the
last release available from NeXT. These users may acquire maintenance
contracts from Franz for technical support which will include future
upgrades such as 4.0 with native CLOS.
Users who purchased NeXT v.2.0 as their initial NeXT machine and wish
to have Allegro CL should contact Franz Inc. directly.
Attached at the end of this message is a Press Release which should
still be correct.
I am sorry for the confusion. Please feel free to contact us
directly if you have any further questions.
In article <12137@life.ai.mit.edu> caroma@ai.mit.edu writes:
I thought the consensus was that Allegro Common Lisp was no longer to be
bundled, but now I see this:
Taken from AI Expert magazine, Dec 1990, p 66, w/out permission:
Allegro CL for Next
Franz, inc., the Berkeley, Calif. LISP company, announced that its
Allegro Common LISP v. 3.1 will be included with v. 2.0 of the Next
system software for Nextstation and Nextcube computers. Franz also
introduced an Allegro CL run-time option for applications on Next
platforms.
Allegro CL is an object-oriented development tool featuring incre-
mental compliation and debugging facilities. The new run-time
option is a version of Allegro CL without development features such
as the compiler and debugger.
Allegro CL v. 3.1 for Next is available from Franz for $1,500;
Allegro CL v. 4.0 will be ported to Next in 1991. For more
information, contact Franz Inc., 1995 University Ave., Berkeley,
Calif. 94704, (415) 548-3600.
Anybody (e.g. locals) figured out what's really going on here?
FRANZ TO OFFER ALLEGRO CL DIRECTLY TO NeXT CUSTOMERS
SAN FRANCISCO, September 18, 1990--Franz Inc. today announced plans
to directly provide Allegro CL (Common LISP) on Release 2.0 of NeXT's
system software, for the new NeXTstation and NeXTcube computers. At
the same time, Franz introduced a low-cost runtime option for
delivering LISP-based customer applications on the NeXT platform.
Allegro CL is a powerful object-oriented programming tool for
development and delivery of complex applications. With incremental
compilation and powerful debugging facilities, Allegro CL is used to
produce a wide range of commercial applications, including expert
systems, CAD/CAM, and computer graphics. Allegro CL has a direct
interface to NextStep's Objective-C, Interface Builder, and
Application Kit, allowing the user to treat Objective-C objects as
LISP objects.
"NeXT's customers will be pleased to hear that they can easily obtain
Franz Allegro CL with NeXT's new computers," said Fritz Kunze,
president of Franz. "We are committed to the NeXT platform, and we
will continue to provide NeXT with powerful development tools." While
Franz is making Allegro CL available to new users, NeXT will
distribute a free upgrade to current Release 1.0 customers. Franz will
provide software support to all Allegro CL users.
The new low-cost runtime option is a compact version of Allegro CL,
without development features such as a compiler or debugger. NeXT
developers pay a one time fee for the right to distribute, plus a
per-copy fee equalling two percent of the delivered product's price.
This means that commercial developers can minimize costs to include an
optimized runtime LISP with their application. And educational,
research, and government agencies will be able to distribute
non-profit applications on a low-cost or no-cost basis.
"LISP is not only an excellent language for prototyping, but also for
commercial deployment," said Kunze. "With the new runtime option, NeXT
developers can take advantage of the sophisticated development
environment of Allegro CL, and still have a clear path for delivering
cost-effective applications."
Allegro CL 3.1 for NeXT is available now directly from Franz for
$1,500. Next year, Franz will port Allegro CL 4.0 to the NeXT
platform, including native CLOS (Common LISP Object System) and
Allegro Presto, an automated runtime generator.
Franz Inc. is the leading vendor of LISP-based software tools on
standard platforms. Franz Inc. was founded in 1984 by affiliates of
the Computer Science Department at the University of California at
Berkeley, including original developers of Franz LISP and BSD
Unix. Allegro CL and companion products are sold and supported
worldwide through Franz' direct sales force and distribution partners.
Franz customers include universities, research institutions, and
Fortune 1000 corporations.
For more information, contact Franz Inc., 1995 University Avenue,
Berkeley, CA 94704, (415) 548-3600.
Allegro CL and Allegro Composer are registered trademarks of Franz
Inc. Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T.
--
=========================================================================
Bill Carlson Franz Inc.
Sales Manager 1995 University Avenue, Suite 275
INTERNET: carlson@franz.com Berkeley, CA 94704
UUCP: uunet!franz!carlson 415-548-3600, FAX:415-548-8253