Hi,
I thought I would put in my two cents worth on the GCL/Allegro debate (or
whatever you wish to call it)!
I would very much prefer staying with a free Lisp implementation of some
kind, for a couple of reasons that have already been raised, primarily:
* What if Franz decides to back out of any deal, with detrimental
results for Maxima?
* Free Lisp implementations are just that - free.
The latter point does matter, even in a corporate environment such as the
one I work in. Getting funds for new software may not be an easy matter.
Finally, I think it is quite desirable to have the ability to compile Maxima
on different platforms, under different Lisps. Otherwise, you might risk
alienating people. With regard to platforms (i.e., operating systems),
there are situations where people, such as myself, are constrained to use
Windows, although the availability of Cygwin alleviates this somewhat (but
not completely).
I should say that I can see the _desirability_ of using Allegro (having
used it myself once), but there may be too many strings attached...
All the best,
Dave Holmgren
Dr. David E. Holmgren,
Imaging Scientist,
SMART Technologies, Inc.
Bay 2, 1440 28 Street NE,
Calgary, AB, Canada
T2A 7W6
http://www.smarttech.com
[403]-235-1452, ext. 251
DavidHolmgren@smarttech.com