Multiple language support

[Fare Rideau]

>>: Fare
>: Rainer Joswig

>> (HOW? (CAN LISPOS (SUPPORT (MULTIPLE (LISP DIALECTS)))))
>>as I don't think LispOS can reasonably qualify as an OS
>>if it is unable to provide such support.
>
> Genera does support ZetaLisp, Common Lisp, ANSI Common Lisp
> and Symbolics Common Lisp in one System.
>
> For Scheme one may load a Scheme in CL system (can't remember
> the name).
>
I've been asking HOW?, and you're answering me "yes it has been done".
I guess I've not been specific enough.
Just the ability to run programs in other languages does not mean
*supporting* them.
   After all, any Turing-tarpit-equivalent system can be used
to run programs in any other language.
There are lots of LISP systems running over C-based OSes.
How well does the underlying system support them to you?
[not to mistake with the question of knowing how well the LISP system
does support the underlying system].
   Supporting them means that components written in any of the
supported languages can be used seamlessly from any other,
without any knowledge about the implementing language;
it means that the system can express, enforce and propagate the invariants
required by the supported language in as automatized a way as possible.
   In a real OS, I want ML people to use ML without having
to fight against the system, and finally open an MLOS@math.gatech.edu
mailing list to discuss the beauty of ML machines
and how the (then) currently omnipresent LispOS is a pain-in-the-ass
twenty-year-old-technology annoyance to get rid of!
   This should be even truer of Scheme people
and <pick-any-Lisp-dialect> fans.

PS: ZetaLisp, Common Lisp, ANSI CL, and SMBX CL are very similar
languages without great semantical differences. Scheme-in-CL is
more interesting, but then, how well does that existing Scheme-in-CL
allow interaction between software written in Scheme and in CL?

#f