My path to lispos (was Re: CL functionality in SchemeOS)

[Christian Lynbech on satellite]

>>>>> "Mike" == Mike McDonald <mikemac@teleport.com> writes:

Mike>   Then why pick Scheme?? If you want CL functionality, pick CL!

I will (pick CL that is). I am not much of a fan of the scheme
philosophy. I only wanted to point out that SLIB is a usefull
startingpoint for the schemers.

I believe that I personally will follow the path of installing GNU
HURD and then porting CMUCL to that environment. This will then be my
laboratory for moving services out of the CMUCL core and into
dedicated servers, which hopefully will usefull to prts of other lisp
implementations

Though Mach (the basis of HURD) has come some way from being a
microkernel (as I hear it), it seems a reasonably starting point,
supporting stuff such as threads, user space servers and a quite
generic security mechanism.

UNIX will be there along with all the familiar UNIX programs such as
emacs and gcc right from the beginning, but as addons. Rather than
being the foundation, UNIX will be just another server.

I believe that the ability to run *different* implementations of lisp
(be it CMUCL, GUILE Scheme, Scheme Tk, emacs lisp or whatever) is
important. What will matter to users will be the ability to run their
favorite programs, which often will require not only a specific
dialect but also a specific implementation, so the idea of providing
the One True Dialect does not seem feasible to me.

The main problem will be what to name such a beast, since the two
obvious candidates `MachLispOS' or `ML-OS' sort of has some problems :-)


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Christian Lynbech          | Telebit Communications A/S                       
                           | Fabrikvej 11, DK-8260 Viby J                 
Phone: +45 8628 8176       | email: chl@tbit.dk --- URL: http://www.tbit.dk
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Hit the philistines three times over the head with the Elisp reference manual.
                                        - petonic@hal.com (Michael A. Petonic)