Allegro CL Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) with Answers

Last-modified: $Date: 1994/10/03 21:23:48 $
Version: $Revision: 1.35 $
Location: ftp.uu.net:~ftp/vendor/franz/faq

  This is a list of frequently asked questions on Allegro Common Lisp
  (ACL) for Unix machines (ACL\PC issues are currently dealt with
  through the Franz Forum, details of which are available with the
  ACL\PC package).  Please read this document before sending mail to
  <franz.com at bugs> or <cs.berkeley.edu. at allegro-cl>  We (Franz Inc.)
  will mail the list (with periodic updates) approximately monthly to 
  <cs.berkeley.edu. at allegro-cl>  Periodically, also, items from this
  list will be incorporated into our documentation.

  Your comments, additions and fixes to this list are welcome: please
  send them to <franz.com. at bugs>

  
Subject: Table of Contents
From: Preface

Legend: + new, - deleted, ! changed

1. Administrative Issues:
------------------------
  1.1.  ACL current version info
!	* What is the current version of ACL?
  1.2.  ACL-related communication
	* How should I report bugs?
	* In ACL 4.2beta, dribble-bug runs into the following error:
	  Error: Can't coerce :*PATCHES* to type SIMPLE-STRING.
	* dribble-bug output seems to lags behind Lisp I/O.
	* Sometimes CL output is not logged in the dribble-bug file.
	  What do I do about this?
+	* Is there a mailing list for Allegro CL?  How do I sign up?
  1.3.  Patches
	* Is there a public patch directory you maintain for incremental
	  patches to the ACL image? If so, how do I get to it?
	* What is the ftp.uu.net, or what is the internet number so I
	  can get to all of your patches?
  1.4.  ACL Documentation
	* What is the relationship between this FAQ and ACL
	  documentation?
	* Is the ACL documentation available on-line?
  1.5.  Installation
	* What do I do about installing ACL 4.x over a network, when rcp
	  fails with permission problems?
	* Allegro CL seems to fail with our automounter.  What do we do?
	* How do I get around Lisp startup problems to do with NIH?
	* What do I do about the following error installing ACL4.2/CLIM2.0:
		ld: /x11/R4/sun4-lib/libX11.a: No such file or directory
	* What to do about "Error: The operating system will not
	  permit common lisp to read its own image"?


2. Architecture-specific problems:
---------------------------------
  2.1. SPARC
	* We're having problems getting CL up on a SS10 running SunOS
	  4.1.3.
	* What do I do for the sparc2/sparc10 incompatibility for Allegro
	  Runtime?
	* Even with the patch for the SS10, things don't work.  I'm
	  using CLIM.  Is this the culprit?	
	* Are there other circumstances under which I would get the
	  too-much-stack error? 
	* When I use Allegro CL on a SPARCstation2 the machine crashes
	  sometimes and I get the following message:
		   Watchdog reset
		   Window Underflow
		   Type help for more information
	* What do I do about using hardware multiply/divide
	  instructions on advanced Sparc chip architectures?  How do I
	  know if I have an architecture that qualifies as "advanced"?
	* Does ACL 4.1 run on a Sparc-5?
  2.2. SGI
	* Does ACL 4.1.mbeta work with MIPS R4000 chips?
	* When I try to execute the tar command, I get a premature EOF error.
	* During installation I get the following error message.  What do I
	  do? 
		| ;   Fast loading from bundle code/foreign.fasl.
		| ;     Foreign loading /tmp/Las14174.o.
		| Error (from debug): Foreign load failed
	* What is the sgi-ld-patch?
	* I ran into the following error message.  What do I do?
		| ;   Fast loading from bundle code/foreign.fasl.
		| ;     Foreign loading /tmp/Las3416.o.
		| /usr/bin/ld:
		| Can't locate file for: -lc_G0
	* My IRIX4.0.5F system doesn't have a G0 version of libsun.a.
	  What do I do about foreign function calls to this library?
	* I get an error claiming a library has no table of contents.
	  What should I do?
	* What do I do about the following SGI installation message?
	| libmld--as0: Error: /tmp/Las2817.s, line 5795: cannot write pfield
	| Error (from ERROR): Could not assemble the trampoline symbols file
	* On the SGI, while loading foreign code, I get the following message:

	Warning: jump relocation out-of-range, bad object file produced, can't
	jump from 0x100f62e0 to 0x40f840 (symbol name: abort) (call to"abort"
	resolved to a name in a different 256 megabyte memory area: the -y
	option to ld (example: -yabort ) will show the reference and
	definition locations)
	* What do I do about the following error obtained while
	building 4.2.malpha on Irix 5.2?
	>>     Unresolved:
	>>     sqrt
	>>     copysign
	>>     *** Error code 1 (bu21)
  2.3. NeXT
	* Does ACL on the NeXT work with the ObjectiveC interface?
	* We have just installed NeXTStep 3.0, and I tried out our old
	   version of Allegro CL 3.1 with the following results:
	   > cl
	   Minor versions don't match in "/usr/shlib/libNeXT_s.C.shlib".
	   This image cannot be executed.

	   Can we just rebuild CL 3.1 or will that software not work with
	   NeXTStep 3.0? 
  2.4. IBM RS6000
	* With automount, what do I do about the following error?

	  Allegro CL 4.1 [IBM RS/6000; R1] (4/7/93 11:35)
	  Copyright (C) 1985-1992, Franz Inc., Berkeley, CA, USA.  All Rights Reserved.
	  Error: There is no file named "/auto50NhfKcS/general/xx/"
	    [condition type: FILE-ERROR]
	  [1] USER(1): 
		

3. Using Allegro CL:
-------------------
  3.1. Base Lisp
	* Does ACL 4.1 accept optional args to LAST and BUTLAST?
	* The doc string in DEFMACRO forms does not seem to be available via
	   the emacs-lisp interface.  It would sure be nice if that was
	   available, like fi:lisp-function-documentation or
	   fi:describe-symbol. 
	* I get "NIL is not an arg-info." whenever I try to write structures
	   to a file using excl:fasl-write. 
	* I need a function that will tell me the name of a function object
	   that I have been given.
	* While using logical pathnames, I ran into a reference to
	  sys:hosts.cl.  What does this mean?
	* How do I determine the directory where the lisp image that is
	  curently running is located?
+	* I'm left with running Lisp processes after I exit my
	  Emacs/xterm. What do I do?
  3.2. Garbage collector
	* When I run my application, some problems on heap space result.  The
	   error I get is: 
   
	   Error: An explicit gc call caused tenuring and a need for 22544384
	          more bytes of heap.
	   This would exceed the image size limit set at initial build.
	     [condition type: storage-condition]
	* I'd like to give my users an indication that gc is in progress, so
	  that they will be patient. I have a function that will produce the
	  desired indication with minimal consing.  Any ideas on how
	  to do this? 
  3.3. Foreign functions
	* Does all multiprocessing activity halt when (and while) waiting for
	  foreign functions to complete?
	* How do I pass a C string back to Lisp?
	* Does ACL support Lisp-C interaction through RPC?
!	* In ACL 4.2 can we call C++ functions as well as C functions?
	* How do I build a shared C/C++object file for loading in Solaris 2.x
	* What do I do about multiply-defined problems with /lib/libc.a?
  3.4. Converting code from Franz Lisp to Allegro CL
	* What changes must I make to move from Franz Lisp to ACL?


4. Add-on products/features:
---------------------------
  4.1. Emacs-Lisp interface
	* I can't seem to type lines with more than 256 characters at Lisp
	  running within the Emacs interface.  Why not?
	* Why do I get the "A background eval/compile request is
	    pending, please wait..." message when doing an eval/compile in
	    a Lisp buffer?
	* How can I get the ACL 4.1 emacs-lisp interface to work with
	  epoch 4.0 and 4.1? 
	* Is there a version of the Emacs-Lisp interface that works
	  with Emacs version 19?
	* Where do I get FSF and Lucid Emacs from?
  4.2. Lisp-Editor Protocol (LEP)
	* How can I edit an s-expression, possibly having lisp
	    wait for the editor to finish the edit session?
	* How can I open a stream to an emacs buffer?
	* How can another stream be used for background output
	    instead of creating the *background-interaction* buffer?
	* How can arbitrary elisp code be run from lisp?
	* Is the presentation system (mouse sensitive Allegro CL
	    objects in emacs buffers) extensible?
	* Is there a way to programmatically determine if the emacs-lisp
	    interface connect has been established?
	* How can I tell if lep had a problem?
	* Lemacs 19.10 and (setq fi::initialization-forms)
	* Lemacs (or ACL, or Composer, or my xterm) freezes when
          running some command that asks for a name in the minibuffer. 
  4.3. CLIM
	* The CLIM 2.0 demos don't seem to work.  What should I do?
	* My ACL4.2.beta2.0 build on the HP fails if CLIM2.0beta is to be
	    included in the image.  If CLIM2.0beta is not included,
	    the build succeeds.  What do I do to build with CLIM?
  4.4. Runtime
	* When I run ACL 4.2 without the development and without the compiler,
	  and with EXCL::*COMPILER-NOT-AVAILABLE-WARNING* = T,
	  I get warnings in two unexpected kinds of places, detailed below.
	  What is going to run slower, and how much slower?
+ 4.5. SQL DB Interface
+	* Is there an Allegro SQL interface for relational databases?
	  Where can I get it?
-----
The Bug Handler, Franz Inc.     1995 University Avenue, Suite 275
<Franz.COM at handler>               Berkeley, CA  94704  USA
Phone: (510) 548-3600           FAX: (510) 548-8253