[armedbear-devel] Seamless ABCL / Java integration proposal

[Blake McBride]

Lest there be any confusion, I deeply appreciate the ABCL system and all
those who contribute to it.

Blake McBride


On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 4:18 AM, Mark Evenson <evenson at panix.com> wrote:

>
> On Feb 16, 2013, at 1622 , Blake McBride <blake at arahant.com> wrote:
>
> > I'd like to add that there are many high quality and free lisp
> > systems available.  The thing that makes ABCL uniquely interesting
> > is its close association to Java.  It gives ABCL a much better
> > ability to leverage off of the existing technology (libraries) built
> > in Java.  While focusing on ABCL's reliability and conformance to
> > standards is very important, I wouldn't loose sight of where the
> > attraction really is.  If the main attraction to ABCL for lisp
> > programmers is its tight integration to Java, than the degree of
> > ABCL's appeal will be directly related to the ease and power of its
> > integration to Java.
>
> Just to clarify the aims of Armed Bear Common Lisp from my standpoint:
>
> We aim to make ABCL a conforming, performant ANSI Common Lisp
> implementation as the platform upon we experiment, developing easier Java
> integration as we iterate through usage and feedback.  This goal
> is currently (mostly[^1]) reflected in how ABCL is packaged: abcl.jar
> contains the core conforming ANSI implementation, whereas
> abcl-contrib.jar contains the goodies which make working with Java
> quite a bit easier.  With features that are specific to the hosting
> JVM, such as allowing CL:PATHNAME to refer to URIs or treating
> java.util.List descendants as a user extensible sequence, we have
> striven to use existing extension methods as much as possible to
> follow the "principle of least surprise".
>
> As such, we believe we offer the best of both worlds.  As a first-class
> Common Lisp implementation which runs on the JVM, ABCL benefits
> from the contemporary Lisp ecosystem of cross-implementation libraries
> exemplified as those distributed via Quicklisp.  In addition to
> contemporary advances, by stressing core conformance, we allow
> applications and research developed decades ago, such as MACSYMA,
> to be able to be run in new environments, for new purposes.
>
> As our community contributes new ideas to making working with Java
> easier such as JSS and JFLI, we will attempt to include them in
> ABCL-CONTRIB.
>
> And, as always, implementation is the sincerest form of flattery.
>
> [^1]: "mostly" because the system obviously needs to have some hooks
> into Java as its implementation language, which form the basis of
> the symbols in the JAVA package, and to some extent SYSTEM and
> EXTENSIONS.  The user-extensible collections for java sequences in
> JAVA-COLLECTIONS are sort of a historical exception to this "rule"
> as well.
>
> --
> "A screaming comes across the sky.  It has happened before but there is
> nothing to compare to it now."
>
>
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>
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