Lisp Implementations

Walter van Roggen

The Lisp community has traditionally been fairly diverse and widespread. Many different dialects have been implemented over the years, embodying different philosophies and displaying various strengths and weaknesses. Lately there have been fewer and more standardized Lisps and a more widespread use of Lisp in solving problems on a wider range of machines.

In the hopes of helping everyone become more familiar with the Lisp implementations that exist, we would like to list all publicly known ones, with brief descriptions. There are no real restrictions on what can be included -- they can conform to a "standard" like Common Lisp or Scheme or they can be home-grown. They can be sold and supported or they can be free with full sources. They can run on just one particular piece of hardware or on many kinds of hardware.

If you are working on a Lisp (and are willing to describe it for public consumption) send the following information to the address below.

• Implementation Name
  
  
• Implemented to which standard (if any)
  
  
• Features (if no standard; see the suggested list of issues below)
  
  
• Additional Features (if implemented according to a standard)
  
  
• Missing Features (if implemented according to a standard)
  
  
• Current version / availability / prices
  
  
• Support (if supported, by whom; sources available?)
  
  
• Machine(s)
  
  
• Operating System(s)
  
  
• Source or Contact
  
  
• Any other comments
  
  
• Submitter's name, address, and net-address
  
  

Some features you might want to comment on include:

• Predefined data types
  
  
• Name spaces and scopes and extents
  
  
• Control structures (e.g., special forms, non-local goto's, multiple values, multiple stacks, tasking, multi-processor support)
  
  
• Typing and declarations
  
  
• Garbage collection
  
  
• I/O functions
  
  
• Compiler
  
  
• Object-oriented support
  
  
• Graphics and windowing support
  
  
• Programming tools (e.g., graphics packages, editor interaction, system maintenance)
  
  
• Interaction with other languages
  
  
• AI-oriented tools (e.g., pattern matching, rules, database support, natural language interface)