Using CL with Linux or Hurd

[Richard Coleman]

Ok... it seems there is a fairly good consensus
that using Common Lisp such as CMU-CL is the way to
go.  So let's proceed with this assumption at this
moment.

Next is the choice of base OS.

1) Flux toolkit - most people believe this is too
   ambitious, and I agree.  It would be different it
   this was a funded project with full-time programmers.

2) Linux - next alternative is using a minimal Linux distribution as
   a base and then proceeding from there.  Phase 1 would be
   to just create a small Linux distribution with CMU-CL installed.
   This would give people writing applications a place to
   start.  This could be started fairly quickly.

3) Hurd - now that glibc 2.03 is out, I'm assuming Hurd 0.2 is
   coming soon (at least that's what I heard TB say).  First this
   would require porting CMU-CL to the Hurd (which is useful in its
   own right).  Then it would proceed like version 2 above.  The
   nice thing here is that you could be running both the lispOS
   environment and the standard environment at the same time (great
   for debugging).  Also, given the architecture of the Hurd, parts
   of lispOS could be useful to people who have no interest in lisp
   (such as using translators written in lisp).

Both version 2 and 3 would be interesting directions to proceed,
although I'm leaning for 3.

rc