[Snow-devel] Slime or other framework for developing Snow

[Alessio Stalla]

On Wed, Jun 8, 2011 at 10:52 AM, Matus Kmit <simply.nitaai at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 8:59 AM, Matus Kmit <simply.nitaai at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 12:46 AM, Alessio Stalla <alessiostalla at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 1:34 PM, Matus Kmit <simply.nitaai at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> i've tried to launch snow with a newer version of ABCL (v0.25), but
>>>> got the following exception:
>>>>
>>>> Exception in thread "main"
>>>> org.armedbear.lisp.Interpreter$UnhandledCondition: Unhandled lisp
>>>> condition: The symbol "VARIABLE-
>>>> INFORMATION" was not found in package SYS.
>>>>        at org.armedbear.lisp.Interpreter$1.execute(Interpreter.java:561)
>>>>        at org.armedbear.lisp.LispThread.execute(LispThread.java:653)
>>>>        at org.armedbear.lisp.Primitives$pf_apply.execute(Primitives.java:2800)
>>>>        at org.armedbear.lisp.Symbol.execute(Symbol.java:801)
>>>>        at org.armedbear.lisp.LispThread.execute(LispThread.java:653)
>>>>        at org.armedbear.lisp.debug_6.execute(debug.lisp:105)
>>>>        at org.armedbear.lisp.CompiledClosure.execute(CompiledClosure.java:124)
>>>>        at org.armedbear.lisp.Symbol.execute(Symbol.java:813)
>>>>        at org.armedbear.lisp.LispThread.execute(LispThread.java:670)
>>>>        at org.armedbear.lisp.debug_7.execute(debug.lisp:114)
>>>>        at org.armedbear.lisp.Symbol.execute(Symbol.java:790)
>>>>        at org.armedbear.lisp.LispThread.execute(LispThread.java:636)
>>>>
>>>> i read in your tutorial that snow is using a modified version of ABCL.
>>>> The version i was trying, was the ordinary one built from sources
>>>> downloaded from ABCL website.
>>>
>>> Right, it was using a modified abcl, but sometime after the 0.3
>>> release I made it work with standard ABCL. Unfortunately, I forgot to
>>> make a new release afterwards.
>>> Now I just released version 0.3.1 that also fixes the problem with
>>> closing the repl, and includes all the post-0.3 stuff that was on
>>> trunk (mainly bug fixes and small improvements, but one API change:
>>> with-widget is now called simply widget). I tested it with the latest
>>> abcl from trunk but it should also work with 0.25 (besides, 0.26 is
>>> not far away I think).
>>
>> Great, thank You!
>>
>> i just tried that out on windows. No-gui-repl option works now, but if
>> there is some error in REPL, it does not provide Lisp-like restart
>> options, but throws a Java Exception instead and leaves snow repl
>> altogether.
>>
>> i tried with: (make-var x)
>>
>
> tried the same on linux -> works OK. it seems to be only a windows issue...

Hey,
sorry for the late reply and thanks for your perseverance :) I've been
a little too busy lately. I noticed that on Windows Snow didn't even
build; I have fixed it on trunk and verified that I get a REPL with a
working debugger (though I didn't test Slime because I haven't it
installed on Windows). I can't do a new release right now, but if you
don't mind using the development version from SVN, chances are that it
will work fine on Windows, too.
Also, the new web-based SVN browser is now working on common-lisp.net.

As for SnowFX, whether it will run on mobile devices or not really
depends on ABCL; currently, it requires a 1.6 JVM supporting
reflection and dynamic class loading. I don't know if Dalvik meets
those requirements, but I seriously doubt an unmodified ABCL would run
there. And the iPhone doesn't even have any form of Java available.
That rules out the biggest share of the mobile market. That said,
maybe Oracle will push JavaFX (and thus JavaSE) on mobile devices
enough to change things a bit.

Cheers,
Alessio