Re: [Ilisp-help] problem with new CMUCL and ILISP

[rif <ri...@MI...>]

OK, I've spent a bunch of time looking at things, and I've somewhat
isolated the problem.

My problem is NOT a CMUCL version skew problem.  This problem occurs
with a brand-new out-of-the-CVS ILISP, which contains no .x86f files
whatsoever.

ILISP, at startup time, tries to load the files ilisp-pkg, cl-ilisp,
cmulisp, and find-src.  For each file, it loads a .x86f if one is
available (which could perhaps lead to version skew problems if one
changes CMUCL versions), and if not, a .lisp file.  The problem
directly relates to the fact that recent versions of CMUCL (including
at least Snapshot 2003-11 and post-18e CVS 2003-08-15) cannot
successfully load the file find-src.lisp in the ILISP distribution.
If the file is compiled, the resulting find-src.x86f can be loaded
normally.  I have sent mail to the CMUCL help mailing list about this.

Therefore, one (currently my only) workaround is to go into a CMUCL
from the shell (NOT from ILISP), and compile find-src.lisp there
(after loading the other three in either .lisp or .x86f form).  This
at least gets ILISP working --- we should really come up with
something better, or at least publicize this workaround so newbies
don't get caught up in it for too long.

M-x ilisp-compile-inits tries to compile all of these files, if they
are not compiled.  For reasons I'm unclear on, this does not work,
regardless of whether or not the workaround above has been applied.
In particular, all attempts to compile cl-ilisp inside an ILISP buffer
yield 67 errors, which seem to all be of the form "blah is not of type
KERNEL::STRUCTURE-CLASS" (same problem we face if we try to load
find-src.lisp.)  Note, however, that if I start a CMUCL from the
shell, I can load ilisp-pkg.[lisp|x86f] and then compile cl-ilisp no
problem.  So this seems to be some weird interaction between ILISP and
CMUCL, rather than strictly a CMUCL problem.

I'm not sure what else to say.  I'm willing to poke at this some more
if anyone has some good ideas or suggestions.

Cheers,

rif