Lisp Eval in C or C++

[Harley Davis]

In article <1991Apr17.170547.19511 at dsd.es.com> bpendlet at bambam.dsd.es.com (Bob Pendleton) writes:

   > I agree.  There seems to be a rush to convert Lisp systems to C (or
   > C++) just at the time when the standard complaints about the size and
   > speed of Lisp implementations are becoming irrelevant.  Memory really
   > *is* cheap - I just bought 16Mb for my home machine for less than 600
   > pounds - and processor speeds are increasing so that if you need to
   > double your speed the easiest thing to do is wait a year rather than
   > rewrite in C.  Add to this the advantages of built-in garbage
   > collection and extension language, and Lisp becomes the obvious
   > choice.

   You are, of course, correct. But.

   The origninal poster said "large." The company I work for sells a
   "large" LISP application. Even compiled it can bog down a 128 meg
   R3000. Not mention that having the application "go to lunch" for 5
   minutes at random times while it is garbage collecting is a serious
   user interface problem. Customers Will Not Accept It.

   So... as much as I like LISP I don't think it is a good language for
   writing commercial applications.

Speak for your own Lisp.  _My_ company sells a Lisp (Le-Lisp) and
Lisp-based applications which rarely exceed 4 megabytes (and even that
is considered large).  Customers almost never complain about process
size or speed.  This, added to the convenience and power of Lisp
programming compared to C, has allowed us to become Europe's biggest
Lisp and AI tool vendor.  I don't think most users of Scheme or the
various Lispy extension languages complain about their memory use
either.

In general, people should be careful when saying "Lisp".  There is no
one dialect which deserves the title "Lisp".  If you are thinking of
Common Lisp, or some specific vendor's Common Lisp, say so.  Not all
Lisps are large or slow.

-- Harley Davis
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