Ouch - I was interested in using Lisp for a recent non-GUI project and 
had to reject it because the performance of the available Lisps under NT 
looked unacceptable.  Given that software often takes longer to develop 
than one expects, could I suggest that simply productizing the console 
mode product would be an easy, VERY useful task.  BTW, can it generate 
DLL's?  If so, I can do almost anything I need in terms of integration 
with other NT apps, though the enhancements you're pushing toward are 
exactly the Right Things.

-----Original Message-----
From:	Jim Veitch <Franz.COM] at [SMTP:jim>
Sent:	Sunday, June 08, 1997 3:23 PM
To:	John D. Watton
Cc:	<cs.berkeley.edu; at allegro-cl> <worldnet.att.net at wwwlucas>
Subject:	Re: Franz ACL 4.3.2 for Windows compared to ACL 3.0.1

Dear John:

Yes, ACL 4.3.2 for NT (doesn't run on Win95) is, as you have seen a high 
performance port of our UNIX optimizing compiler.  So why don't we 
promote it?
1.	We are working hard to get it to run well under Win95.
2.	We are working hard to get the PC GUI (Common Graphics and the 
Interface Builder) ported and to run well on it.  This is a very major 
task and will take us a while yet.  CLIM runs on it, but our major 
effort is going to port the PC GUI.
3.	We are working hard to add some Windows specific components such as 
OLE capability.
4.	We are redoing the GUI somewhat to be more like, for example, the 
Visual Basic interface (note we aren't giving up on the advantages of 
Lisp, though!).  That way we believe we will be able to attract new 
users into the Lisp world more easily.

ACL 4.3.2 + the PC GUI (redone as in 4.) is the basis for our next major 
release (ACL 5.0) and will replace both ACL Win 3.0 and ACL 4.3.
On the other hand, if you have a use for a high performance Windows NT 
Lisp with Multi-threading and with CLIM only GUI (or a direct interface 
into the WinAPI), then ACL 4.3.2 for NT is just right for you and we 
will talk about making available to you (contact <franz.com). at sales>  
Examples include people who might want to build a Webserver or who have 
an existing UNIX/CLIM implementation.  But we haven't been actively 
promoting because we have been pushing so hard towards the next major 
release (ACL 5.0).
Regards,
Jim Veitch
Franz Inc.

At 08:44 PM 6/7/97 -0400, John D. Watton wrote:
>I recently got to try out a beta copy of Franz ACL 4.3.2 for
>Windows. It is a port of their UNIX optimizing compiler to
>Windows. Not to be confused with their port of 4.3 to Linux. Anyway,...
...