[Axiom-developer] Re: GCL-2.5.3

[Mark Murray]

root writes:
> It would be nice if Axiom ran on any common lisp without changes but
> there is no common lisp spec for sockets so every lisp will have to be
> rebuilt with socket support.

Camm has come up with a proposal that looks as though it does this
generically.

> Furthermore the lisp build is actually just a few minutes of the whole
> build so the "overhead" of rebuilding is low. And, in fact, the lisp
> will never be rebuilt if you don't change versions so it is a one-time
> event.

In theory, every FreeBSD build will be a one-time build, as that is the
way the ports system works.

> Still further, having Axiom do a custom build of the lisp ensures that
> we have a working version that is known to be correct.  Running on
> random lisp images can be problematic since Axiom sets up things like
> memory layouts (see the src/interp/Makefile.pamphlet). These are
> needed because otherwise Axiom will run inefficiently due to consing.
> Other lisps will require similar tuning.

That is fair enough. I can make sure that the FreeBSD GCL is built
properly for AXIOM, etc.

> Axiom also runs faster after the "second compile". That is, if you do
> a build and then rebuild the src/interp directory Axiom will run
> faster. There are .fn files in the INT directory and these contain
> type information which GCL can use to "fast path" the system
> calls. They are generated at the first compile and used during the
> second. It is "in plan" to force a rebuild of src/interp in order to
> build the fastest possible image.

Hmmm.

> The noweb image is changed from the original and is "in plan" to
> have much deeper changes to support new pamphlet/booklet features. I
> talked to Norman Ramsey, the author of noweb, and he wants to keep his
> distribution as simple as possible so changes aren't going to migrate
> back to the noweb distribution. It probably won't be named noweb in
> the future so we don't collide with Norman's work.

Hmm. Then it makes sense to check it into your tree and fork it properly,
no?

> Upcoming but not yet part of the build is a deeper use of other packages
> like ADVI. These packages will have modifications that are almost 
> certainly not going to get picked up by the general distribution. In
> particular, with ADVI, we need to build a "browser-like" hyperlink 
> ability and a front-end that can handle table-of-contents and outline
> forms. Axiom will have thousands of pamphlet files that are cross-referencing
> .
> ADVI is going to have to know what a pamphlet file is, how to build one, 
> how to walk one, and how to move among them. Thus there is an Axiom-ADVI
> in the future plan.

So you are going to check them into the axiom tree and essentially borg
them, right? :-)

> However, it is good to review the patches and see if they can be back-ported.
> I've only patched the lisp as a last resort. Perhaps you can figure out ways
> to eliminate the need to patch (e.g. how to add EXTRAS).

Camm did this :-)

> I downloaded GCL-2.5.3 last night (the last tar.gz) and I also downloaded
> the CVS. Where did you find 2.7.1?

I checked it out of the CVS repo (HEAD).

M
--
Mark Murray
iumop ap!sdn w,I idlaH