[Ecls-list] ECL 0.9d released

[Julian Stecklina]

Juan Jose Garcia Ripoll <lisp at arrakis.es> writes:

> Julian Stecklina wrote:
>
>>w00t. :) I'll update the FreeBSD port ASAP.
>>
> This time the 64-bit platforms should compile out of the box. At least
> the NetBSD-Alpha does.

The fun thing is that (with a little luck) I am going to get a DEC
AlphaStation to play with next week. Anyone tried ECL on Tru64 Unix?
;) I am mostly interested in FreeBSD/Alpha though.

I'll make a note in the ports Makefile saying that it *should* compile
and run on 64-bit systems, but leave the ONLY_FOR_ARCHS=x86 for
now, until someone actually tests it on those platforms.

>>Does this fix the compiler in respect to the random tester?
>>
> Not entirely. One of the reasons I wanted to make this release is to
> commit a second rewrite of the lexical environment analyzer, which
> really does solve all problems releated to the random tester, except
> for some which have to do with optimized code producing wrong results,
> and wrong inline expansions, etc --- there is still a long way ahead
> before full stability.
>
> The problem with this second revision of the compiler is that it
> changes, once more, the data structures which are used. Just in case
> somebody is interested, intermediate code will be stored as a graph,
> variables keep track of places where they are modified, and each
> function keeps a list of the variables that it references, which are
> external to it. Then, the compiler traverses the function graph,
> identifying which functions need a full closure (i.e. an environment
> which is stored as a linked list), a lexical closure (somewhat more
> efficient, stack allocated environments), or uses no external
> variables.

Somewhen I have to familiarise myself with the compiler in ECL. But
time is a bit scarce this semester.

> (*) Allerheiligen, All Saints, 1st of  November, is a holiday for us
> lucky inhabitants of Bavaria. However, this time no beer was involved
> in the coding O:-)

No luck here in Saxony. But Buß- und Bettag is on Nov 17th. :)

Regards,
-- 
                    ____________________________
 Julian Stecklina  /  _________________________/
  ________________/  /
  \_________________/  LISP - truly beautiful