Subject: Re: Common Lisp interpretation by emacs From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> Date: 2000/03/24 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3162910141905443@naggum.no> * Barry Margolin <barmar@bbnplanet.com> | #1 and #2 don't seem to be related to the dialect of Lisp that Emacs | happens to be written in. I prefixed what I wrote with "what I have wanted that can't be done in the current Emacs are:", so I assume you ignored that context instead of merely overlooking it, but it is in fact crucial, even to your supposed counter-argument. Emacs Lisp has some _fundemental_ limitations that Common Lisp the language and its several implementations don't have. obviously, however, you _could_ do anything in any language given enough effort and resources, but whether you want to is _usually_ a matter of convenience and pragmatics for most people -- the absence of available resources is usually an argument against "can". if you will, Emacs Lisp makes certain tasks prohibitively inconvenient and/or impractical. for me, that matters a lot. if it doesn't matter to you, I expect a free implementation soon. | #3 doesn't depend on ANSI CL, but just the fact that most CL | implementations also include foreign function interfaces; but there's no | good reason why a similar FFI couldn't be included in Emacs Lisp. then you should have no objection to "then go do it", right? I promise that I'll listen to your argument _after_ you have done it. #:Erik