Subject: Re: ACL 6.0 Trial Edition ships with non ANSI reader behavior. From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: 21 Nov 2000 05:35:28 +0000 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3183773728658586@naggum.net> * Tim Bradshaw <tfb@cley.com> | Well, clearly if at least one of the figures that has been mentioned | in this thread is correct, it would be be cheaper to implement a CL | system from scratch than pay the fees mentioned -- much cheaper! Do we have any realistic concept of how much programmer time it would take to build a (complete and fully ANSI conforming) Common Lisp system from scratch? 10 years? 100 years? I think we are closer to the latter figure than the former. The problem is that building core technologies and infrastructure takes about an order of magnitude more time and effort than building applications. Not just because the specifications are more complex, but because we're dealing with languages, where the kinds of user input the system has to deal well with covers an enormous domain. This is why it is paramount that an implementation be faitful to the specifications for the language and the environment. Creating a system that does what its developers think is cool is not that hard, but making one that accomodates other people of different attitudes and desires well is what's worth buying. (That's a not very subtle hint to Franz Inc and John Foderaro, too.)) #:Erik -- ALGORITHM: a procedure for solving a mathematical problem in a finite number of steps that frequently involves repetition of an operation. ALGOREISM: a procedure for solving an electoral problem in a finite number of steps that frequently involves repetition of an operation.