[CM] cm,clm and sbcl

Christophe Rhodes csr21@cam.ac.uk
Mon, 13 May 2002 13:00:11 +0100


On Sun, May 12, 2002 at 03:27:08PM +0200, nik gaffney wrote:
> > i dont know
> > anything about steel bank cl though, ill look into it.
> 
> sbcl is derived from cmucl, with a few changes in focus.
>  so, porting from cmucl to sbcl shouldnt be to difficult (famous last words)
> 
> http://sbcl.sourceforge.net/

Famous last words, indeed :-)

In terms of porting code between them, things you might need to be aware
of are:

  * package name changes: Most of SBCL's packages are prefixed with SB-
  (so, for example, extensions live in SB-EXT, rather than EXT); also,
  there is no equivalent package to C-CALL (all alien machinery lives in
  SB-ALIEN).
  * deletion of extensions: Some things which CMUCL treats as supported
  extensions are either deleted entirely (e.g. search lists) or not
  supported as extensions, but are viewed as internal implementation
  details (e.g. SB-UNIX machinery). Hovering somewhere in this area is
  also calling lisp from C via funcallX -- this interface is possibly
  subject to change in the medium- to long-term.

That said, bodies of code, including foreign-interfacing code, have been
made to run under both without expending vast amounts of effort, so
please don't treat this message as discouragement -- quite the reverse,
in fact. Don't hesitate to get in touch with the sbcl development team
if you have any questions or requests.

Cheers,

Christophe
-- 
Jesus College, Cambridge, CB5 8BL                           +44 1223 510 299
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