Embeddable Common-Lisp

On Wednesday 04 December 2002 16:50, Rolf Wester wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I tried to compile the regexp package that can be found at
> http://www2.worldpbx.com/regexp/ but faced some problems.
>
> 1. defpackage doesn't compile unless I comment out the
>     (:documentation ...  part.

Fixed. Thanks!

> 2. The characters #\Bell and #\Escape result in an
>     "NIL is an illegal character name" error

These are non standard. You can replace them with #.(schar "\a" 0) and
#.(schar "\e" 0).

> 3. After fixing this the c-file is written by ECL but with a
>    syntax error.
>    "gcc -g -O2 ....
>     regexcp.c:51: parse error before ';'
>    line 51 is:
>    CLV1=3D&CAR(env0=3DCONS(cl_va_arg(args);,env0));/*  STREAM    */

This error was fixed long ago in CVS. I am still trying to finish the por=
t of
CLX before releasing ECL 0.8. You should give the copy in CVS a try.

> I'm looking for a CL-implementation that makes it possible to create fa=
st
> running code (for heavy numerical simulations) either by compiling the =
lisp
> code or by easy integration of external C-code.

ECL can integrate C code, but the interface for automatic generation of
functions is limited -- it is restricted to char, int, double and char *
types, IIRC. There is, therefore, a chance that you will have to fix this=
, or
either write the wrapper to your functions yourself (using defCinline,
defCbody, and so on.)

> [...] Another
> point is that it took some time to find the problems because ECL doesn'=
t
> tell much about the line or function where the problem accures. Is ther=
e a
> means to tell ECL to be more verbose?

When compiling, information about line number is lost. Nevertheless, the
compiler lists all functions as they are being compiled, and therefore it=
 is
rather easy to spot the offending function. For instance, the following e=
rror
takes place in TEST-REGEXP.

;;; Compiling (DEFUN REPLACE-REGEXP ...).
;;; Compiling (DEFUN TEST-REGEXP ...).
;;; The variable *REGEXP-TEST-DATA* is undefined.
;;; The compiler will assume this variable is a global.
"Vt" is an illegal character name.
Broken at COMPILE-FILE.
REGEXP>> :v

I have attached the patches to compile the REGEXP library. It now passes =
its
own test suite

> (load "regexp.lisp")

;;; Loading "regexp.lisp"
#P"regexp.lisp"

> (regexp::test-regexp)

70 tests performed with 70 passing and 0 failing.
NIL

> (load "regexp")

;;; Loading "regexp.so"
#P"regexp.so"

> (regexp::test-regexp)

70 tests performed with 70 passing and 0 failing.
NIL

> I would be very appreciative for help because I would like to use ECL a=
s a
> Matlab like environment. I have tried Lush but didn't like that it beca=
use
> it's not CL. All the other alternatives have some very restrictive and/=
or
> slow (Python etc.) languages.

Did you have a look at Yorick? ftp://ftp-icf.llnl.gov/pub/Yorick/
It is nice, but it does not have closures, and it may take you some time =
to
get used to the language. I have written a library for Yorick, called
SpYorick (see web address below), which includes sparse matrices, FFTW,
ARPACK, and so on and so forth.

Best regards

Juanjo