Conference turris::languages

334.0. "Portable XLISP V1.1 (VMS,CP/M,MS-DOS,RT,RSX,OSF/1)" by MSDOA::SECRIST (OSF/1 Silver on MIPS !) Thu May 07 1992 09:36

	XLISP is a sparse LISP-like language with extensions for
	object-oriented programming by David Betz, formerly of Digital.  
	I have XLISP V1.1 running under VMS, CP/M-80, and MS-DOS today; 
	it requires minimal memory.  I will have it up under OSF/1, 
	RT-11, and RSX next.  I am in the progress of writing an
	in-depth reference manual after laboriously figuring out the 
	syntax for everything; the manual will grow with my experience
	and available time.  Source is available in C.  As the language
	hits new platforms I will document portability concerns; the
	intent is to be source-code compatible across all systems.
	I will not port the later versions of this language as it
	became increasingly larger to the point of bloat with time and
	I'm looking for a single portable language across my flock.

	Prior musings and progress were posted in note 14 of
	MSDOA::PDP_HOME_COMPANION and 450 in BISON::VT180.  The manual 
	is being developed in VAX DOCUMENT and will be available in 
	ASCII text and postscript formats.  The mother of all notes 
	documenting progress and current offerings will be note 67
	in the PDP_HOME_COMPANION (press KP7 to add).

	Please contact me if you have DECUS 11-626 XLISP V1.1 or 
	11-SP-84 RSX SIG Spring 1985 New Orleans; until I get it
	compiled by hand I'd love to have the binary executables.

	Regards,
	rcs

If I remember correctly, the lastest version of XLisp is 2.X, after going
through 1.0 to 1.8.  I think you are missing a lot by using 1.1.

	; -< V1.1? That's quite old, isn't it? >-
	;
	; If I remember correctly, the lastest version of XLisp is 2.X, 
	; after going through 1.0 to 1.8.  I think you are missing a lot 
	; by using 1.1.

  The latest is V2.1, and it's now so big David Betz has decryed
  what Tom Almy did to it as a travesty of his original intent and
  has given it up for his XSCHEME.  V2.0 is pretty cool though,
  and Tim M* of HP in Fort Collins wrote an excellent, huge manual 
  for it with a primer on the object stuff.  A friend gave me pointers 
  to it in the /pub directories on DECWRL and GATEKEEPER.DEC.COM.
  So V2.0 is nice and very Common LISP compliant... and if I wasn't
  supporting boat anchors as part of my government residency or
  herding dinosaurs at home I'd probably scrag V1.1 in a heartbeat.
  The advantage is there is a *lot* less code if you're going to
  play with the sources yourself, and anything past V1.2 won't fit
  on CP/M-80 or PDP-11 O/S without overlaying.  I'll mess with
  the latest and post news of at least availability later.

  Regards,
  rcs