ECL



On 11/14/2011 01:06 PM, Stavros Macrakis wrote:
> What exactly is your goal, and why would a "stand-alone executable" be 
> better for your needs than a saved core image?
>
> And what exactly do you think the difference is between a stand-alone 
> executable for Maxima and a saved core image?  After all, a 
> full-function Maxima system needs most of the functionality of the 
> underlying Lisp system, including things like garbage collection which 
> require certain low-level runtime conventions to be respected.  And 
> Maxima needs 'eval' if you're going to allow the user to define 
> functions in Maxima and translate them into Lisp.  This is ignoring 
> explicit escape mechanisms like :lisp and ?atoms.
>
>              -s
>
> On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 15:43, Paul Bowyer <pbowyer at olynet.com 
> <mailto:pbowyer at olynet.com>> wrote:
>
>     On 11/14/2011 12:29 PM, Richard Fateman wrote:
>
>         On 11/14/11 11:39 AM, Paul Bowyer wrote:
>
>             Hello again, maxima users:
>
>             I'm trying ECL as an experiment because I see that it has
>             the ability to generate stand-alone executable programs by
>             compiling to 'c' rather than saved lisp core images that
>             other lisps use and I'm wondering if that might be
>             something that can be done with the maxima installation
>             somehow.
>
>             I don't know very much about what might be involved so I'm
>             asking in relative ignorance of what the possibilities are
>             of using that mode of generating a stand-alone executable
>             of the maxima program.
>
>             I'm sure I need to know a lot more about what I'm asking
>             before I can even ask an intelligent question on the
>             subject, so this is just a 'dumb' question at the moment.
>
>             Thanks for any insights you may have,
>
>             Paul Bowyer
>
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>
>         pretty much a pointless exercise if you are to be faithful to
>         what Maxima does.
>         Since Maxima can execute commands like
>
>         :lisp    ... insert here anything that can be done by lisp....
>
>         your stand-alone executable would have to include all of lisp,
>         anyway.
>
>         RJF
>
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>
>     RJF
>
>     I hadn't thought of that aspect of maxima.
>
>     I haven't used maxima to call lisp directly, so barring that
>     usage, would compiling maxima down to a stand-alone executable be
>     practical?
>
>
>     Paul Bowyer
>
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>
>
Stavros, Ray:

I'm uncertain what my goals might be because I don't yet know enough 
about the subject. I was only asking what the possibilities were.

I experiment with different things on my computer to see what I can do 
and this looked interesting because my experience with lisp core images 
(not much experience though) has been that they tend to be very large. I 
would be much happier with common lisp written applications if I could 
get past the very large core images required for executables.

Ray wrote:
Maxima running with gcl does this.  But as Richard points out, it 
contains gcl (including compiler) and maxima all in one.  Maxima with 
cmucl can also create a "standalone" executable.

I was unaware that gcl already did this, but I think it makes sense 
because it was very fast on my computer when I used it.

I sometimes attempt to write code that does some mathematics and rather 
than re-inventing the wheel I thought it would/could be interesting to 
use already written open-source software such as portions of maxima 
(providing I could understand which portions I needed and had the 
okey-doaky to do so) in something I might try writing.

I'm just pondering the possibilities at the moment without any clear-cut 
directions to my mental meanderings.

Paul Bowyer