hi nicholas,

with RedHat 7.x you should have an emacs version of 20.7 or higher (you
can run `M-x emacs-version' to double-check that).  for emacs 20.x, the
Allegro Emacs Lisp Interface (`eli') comes pre-compiled.  it should be
sufficient to just unpack the archive, say into `/usr/local/lkb/eli',
and then add something along these lines to your `.emacs':

  ;;; Hey, emacs, this file is -*- Emacs-Lisp -*- ... got that?

  (defmacro when (condition &rest body)
    (list 'and condition (cons 'progn body)))

  (defmacro unless (condition &rest body)
    (list 'or condition (cons 'progn body)))

  (defun lkb (&optional prefix)
    (interactive "P")

    ;;
    ;; set up .load-path., load and configure emacs -- lisp interface
    ;;
    (let ((eli "/usr/local/lkb/eli"))
      (unless (member eli load-path) (setq load-path (cons eli load-path))))
    (load "fi-site-init" nil t)
    (fset 'lisp-mode (symbol-function 'common-lisp-mode))
    (setq fi:common-lisp-image-name "/usr/local/lkb/linux/lkb")
    (setq fi:common-lisp-image-file "/usr/local/lkb/linux/lkb.dxl")

    ;;
    ;; load LKB-specific parts of emacs -- lisp interface
    ;;
    (let ((lkb "/usr/local/lkb/src"))
      (unless (member lkb load-path) (setq load-path (cons lkb load-path)))
      (load "lkb" nil t)
      (load "tdl-mode" nil t))

    ;;
    ;; start up inferior lisp process
    ;;
    (let ((process-connection-type nil))
      (fi:common-lisp)))

someone who wanted to use this without the LKB (just Allegro CL), would
need to drop the LKB-specific statements and adjust directory names.

                                                           best  -  oe

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