1
Notes on lisp implementations for Maxima:
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clisp, CMUCL, GCL and SBCL are fully supported by Maxima; previous
4
versions of Maxima only fully supported GCL. Allegro Common Lisp and
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OpenMCL have some support, but have not been fully tested. Ports to
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other ANSI lisps should be straightforward and are welcome; please
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contact the developers if you are interested in working on a port.
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clisp <http://clisp.cons.org>, <http://clisp.sourceforge.net>
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clisp includes GNU readline support, so Maxima will have
1
Notes on Lisp implementations for Maxima:
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Clisp, CMUCL, Scieneer Common Lisp (SCL), GCL (ANSI-enabled only)
4
and SBCL can compile and execute Maxima.
5
Allegro Common Lisp and OpenMCL might also work, but have not
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Ports to other ANSI Common Lisps should be straightforward
8
and are welcome; please post a message on the Maxima mailing list
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if you are interested in working on a port.
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See also the ports page at the Maxima wiki:
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http://maxima.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?Maxima%20ports
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When Maxima is recompiled, the Lisp implementation is selected by
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an argument of the form `--enable-foolisp' for the configure script.
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`./configure --help' shows a list of the Lisp types recognized by
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configure (among other options). Always specify the Lisp type;
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configure tries to autodetect the Lisp type if it is not specified,
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but it has been reported that autodetection can fail.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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Comparison of execution times for the run_testsuite function
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All times are in elapsed seconds
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Maxima System GCL SBCL CMUCL Clisp
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pre-5.9.3 P2 450 MHz, Linux 75 91 301
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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Clisp <http://clisp.cons.org>, <http://clisp.sourceforge.net>
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Clisp includes GNU readline support, so Maxima has
12
33
advanced command-line editing facilities when built with it.
14
clisp versions: Clisp version 2.33.2 or later is recommended. Clisp
15
2.30 is not compatible with Maxima and should be avoided.
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Clisp versions: Clisp version 2.33.2 or later is recommended.
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Clisp 2.30 is not compatible with Maxima.
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Clisp is compiled to bytecodes, so Maxima running on Clisp is
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substantially slower than on Lisps compiled to machine instructions.
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Clisp computes floating-point operations in software,
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so floating-point operations in Clisp are much slower than in Lisps
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which make use of hardware instructions for floating-point operations.
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On the other hand, Clisp makes use of the GMP library for arbitrary-
44
precision integer computations.
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There are Clisp implementations for many platforms
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including MS Windows and Unix-like systems.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
17
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CMUCL <http://cmucl.cons.org>
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52
CMUCL is a fast option for Maxima on platforms where it is
21
53
available. The rmaxima front-end provides advanced line-editing
25
57
CMUCL versions: 18e and 19a are known to work.
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There are CMUCL implementations only for Unix-like systems
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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Scieneer Common Lisp (SCL) <http://www.scieneer.com/scl/>
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Scieneer Common Lisp (SCL) is a fast option for Maxima for a
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range of Linux and Unix platforms. The SCL 1.2.8 release and later
67
are supported. SCL offers a lower case, case sensitive, version which
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avoids the Maxima case inversion issues with symbol names. Tested
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front end options are: maxima emacs mode available in the
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interfaces/emacs/ directory, the emacs imaxima mode available from
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http://members3.jcom.home.ne.jp/imaxima/, and TeXmacs available from
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http://www.texmacs.org/
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
27
75
GCL <http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gcl>
29
77
GCL versions starting with 2.4.3 can be built with readline
30
support, so Maxima will have advanced command-line editing facilities
33
GCL versions: GCL 2.6.5 is recommended for Maxima. Only the ANSI build
34
of GCL is currently supported, i.e., GCL must be configured with the
35
--enable-ansi flag. GCL produces a fast Maxima exectuable.
78
support, so Maxima has advanced command-line editing facilities
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when built with it. GCL produces a fast Maxima exectuable.
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GCL versions: GCL 2.6.5 and 2.6.7 are known to work for Maxima.
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Only the ANSI-enabled version of GCL works with Maxima, i.e.,
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when GCL is built, it must be configured with the --enable-ansi flag,
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i.e., execute ``./configure --enable-ansi'' in the build directory
85
before executing make.
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Whether GCL is ANSI-enabled or not can be determined by
88
inspecting the banner which is printed when GCL is executed;
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if ANSI-enabled, the banner should say "ANSI".
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Also, the special variable *FEATURES* should include the keyword :ANSI-CL.
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There are GCL implementations for many platforms
93
including MS Windows and Unix-like systems.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
37
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SBCL <http://sbcl.sourceforge.net>
39
rmaxima is recommended for use with SBCL. See CMUCL above.
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SBCL version 0.8.9 is known to work.
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SBCL is a fork of CMUCL which differs in some minor details,
99
but most notably, it is simpler to rebuild SBCL than CMUCL.
101
rmaxima is recommended for use with SBCL. See CMUCL above.
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SBCL versions 0.8.9 and 0.9.4 are known to work.
105
There are SBCL implementations only for Unix-like systems
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
43
109
Allegro Common Lisp and OpenMCL:
44
-------------------------------
46
111
Maxima should work with Allegro Common Lisp and OpenMCL, but
47
only limited testing has been done with these lisp
112
only limited testing has been done with these Lisp
48
113
implementations. User feedback would be welcome.
added
removed
README.lisps
