
Steel Bank Common Lisp Version 1.0.38 released - jgg
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sbcl/files/sbcl/1.0.38/sbcl-1.0.38-release-notes.txt/view
======
amouat
You've linked to the sourceforge project page, a better link is probably the
web page at:

<http://sbcl.sourceforge.net/>

Or <http://sbcl.sourceforge.net/news.html> if you were highlighting the latest
release.

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crazydiamond
Is there any point learning SBCL or CMUCL today for actually writing
applications using Lisp, or is Clojure a better choice?

Basically, I want to learn lisp, but also write some apps in it. I keep
hearing that people use lisp for prototyping and then rewrite in some other
language.

~~~
calibraxis
It depends on the apps you want to write, as well as what you already know.
(For example, if you know your way around Javadocs and Java classpaths,
Clojure rises as a possibility.)

I suggest skimming through a few pages of Planet Clojure and Planet Lisp, to
get a sense of the apps people are writing. As a rough rule of thumb, if one
excites you much more, that could be the better choice.

If you end up going with CL, you'll likely have a better time asking newbie
questions on LispForum (or mailing lists like the LispWorks one), rather than
on Usenet. And there are alternatives to SBCL and CMUCL, such as ECL and
LispWorks: <http://common-lisp.net/~dlw/LispSurvey.html>

As for prototyping-then-rewriting, I think there are a few situations:

1) nontechnical reasons (such as, the maintainers can't be expected to
maintain a Lisp app)

2) because the Lisp implementation is missing some convenient functionality,
and it isn't easy to call an existing one in another language

3) the Lisp doesn't interoperate well with a given technical ecosystem

I think the probability of rewriting is less with Clojure, due to its Java
interop, long-term goals of interop with other platforms (like .NET), and the
increasing number of teams using it.

~~~
crazydiamond
Replying to both posts above. Thx.

I am not interested in webapps. I usually do command line stuff, or libraries,
and i've done some libraries in ncurses. Basically a terminal freak. Currently
ruby, but 5-6 years of Java before that. No functional language exp.

Are there not several versions of Scheme, too. Any suggestions for what to
start with.

Is scheme/lisp/clojure the correct language to use for terminal/command-line
apps or ncurses stuff ?

Does anyone offhand know if there is ncurses support for these languages ?

~~~
jgg
>No functional language exp.

Common Lisp, at least, isn't really a purely functional language. It supports
multiple paradigms. Scheme and Clojure are a little more "functional" than CL,
but they too are not pure. I wouldn't worry about this yet.

>Are there not several versions of Scheme, too. Any suggestions for what to
start with.

I replied above. (-:

>Is scheme/lisp/clojure the correct language to use for terminal/command-line
apps or ncurses stuff ?

I don't see why not.

>Does anyone offhand know if there is ncurses support for these languages ?

It looks like there is a package for Common Lisp for doing ncurses stuff.
There's a thread on the PLT mailing list that indicates there's no support for
ncurses in PLT Scheme, but other implementations might have it. A search in
Clojure's libraries didn't reveal anything, but I may be looking in the wrong
place (it seems like they would have one).

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marcusbooster
Of notable interest, they're added the _sb-concurrency_ module. The best part
about lisp is how it can incorporate new programming ideas into the normal
syntax.

~~~
tedunangst
Sigh. I'm pretty sure I could add lock free queues to C without changing the
syntax.

    
    
        lockfree_enqueue(queue, whatnot);
        whatnot = lockfree_dequeue(queue);
    

Looks just like all the rest of my C code. The part of me that wants to learn
lisp dies a little every time I read one of these "look how awesome lisp is"
comments because I'm afraid I'll end up spouting such nonsense.

~~~
zachbeane
It's easy to add new things to Lisp and C when the interface looks mostly like
function invocation. It's easier to extend Lisp with things that aren't a lot
like function invocation, because C syntax and the C preprocessor don't work
together as well as Lisp syntax and Lisp macros.

I wouldn't worry much about spouting nonsense when you learn new things unless
you're prone to that already.

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jluxenberg
For those curious about the origin of the name, this is fork of CMU CL. CMU is
a university located in Pittsburgh, a city with a history as a steel town.

~~~
strlen
Carnegie was a steel baron. Melon was a banker. Hence Carnegie Mellon became
"steel bank".

