CompuServe Thread

#AI on Amiga

6 messages in this thread
#95689From: Thomas HoladayNov 29, 1987 8:11 AM
I'm changing the thread from 68020 boards to 'AI.' Is the reason an AI student would want Golden Common Lisp rather than, say, Icon, that there are lots of libraries available for Golden Common Lisp? Is it tradition? Is it performance? My experience with Lisp machines is limited to talking with their manufacturers at computer shows, but it was my impression that a very fast fixed disk in fast memory would outperform a fast fixed disk in very fast memory.
#95822From: Winston M. LlamasNov 29, 1987 10:33 PM
I like the LISP programming environment present on many of the LISP machines. In any case, I like LISP for many reasons, among them are that I know how to program in LISP; I like the "data is program and program is data" ideas that LISP embodies. A lot of AI programs are written in LISP and I find it easier to prototype programs in LISP than other languages. Icon isn't bad, but again, the Amiga implementation isn't very fast. Besides, I kinda liked Snobol 4. I don't know Icon very well; I don't have the time to learn it right now. At least the Amiga has some good C compilers. Winston
#95829From: John DraperNov 29, 1987 10:52 PM
Hmmm… I wrote a small 'search' program in Icon, and it outperforms the supplied Amigados 'search' by a significant amount. I admit I haven't seen many Lisps, but the ones I have are slow in the extreme. Regards, Larry.
#95843From: Rick HomNov 29, 1987 11:27 PM
Hi, Pardon me for intruding on your thread. I have been using XLisp on my Amiga. Do you know how it compares to Cambridge Lisp or any of the other commercial products? I'm interested in benchmarks, implementation differences, etc. Thanks, Rick
#95863From: John DraperNov 30, 1987 12:11 AM
Rick, Sorry, I have only messed with XLisp and Metacomco's on the Amiga, and neither for extended periods (Lisp isn't one of my strong points). Regards, Larry.
#95906From: Thomas HoladayNov 30, 1987 7:47 AM
When you say you like the LISP programming environment present on many machines, I don't know what you mean. Is it an interactive editor? De-bugging facilities? Checkpointing? Tracing? Machine-level monitors? I'm not in a position to purchase a bunch of MS-DOS Lisps, try them out on an AT, and figure out what makes them attractive. I'd suspect that dual-processing Lisp, with your favorite environment on an A2000 bridgeboard running as an inference engine, but displaying results etc within AmigaDOS would give interesting performance. Is the main problem with Icon as an AI language is that people haven't learned it? I'm using Snobol4 live now in a text-formatting application so I know what you mean about the data-is-program flavor.