[Ecls-list] Hello everyone

[Juan Jose Garcia-Ripoll]

Hola Francisco,

I am really glad that you are considering the use of ECL. Regarding
your precise question

>        My question is: which development stack do you use in windows for ECL?
> Is Emacs+Slime the best choice or should I try something else? Makefile and
> company or Visual something for building/compiling/scripting/whatever?

First of all, the most stable version of ECL in Windows is the one
built with Visual Studio C++. It is best if you can avoid Mingw or
Cygwin.

That said, ECL itself does not integrate well with the GUI of Visual
Studio and I am afraid it would be hard to code Common Lisp using
Microsoft tools. In any case the development stack as you say will
depend on how you want to use Common Lisp.

- If it will be your main programming language, then Slime or a
similar editor would be the best choice.

- If it will be used as an embedded language, mainly for scripting,
then you might want to stay with Visual Studio.

In the first case ECL would be used to build / compile the program
itself, just like it does with its own code base. Slime would be very
helpful for compiling, testing, interactively trying, debugging, etc.

In the second case you would have to think whether the Common Lisp
part has to be compiled or not, and how to integrate both things --
probably Visual C++ allows you to add external tools for building
components -- but you will lose the interactive part.

Note however that Slime-ECL integration is still subject to
development, as you may already have noticed in the mailing list. It
may be wise to stay with older versions or wait until a new release is
produced.

Juanjo

-- 
Instituto de Física Fundamental, CSIC
c/ Serrano, 113b, Madrid 28006 (Spain)
http://juanjose.garciaripoll.googlepages.com