Using Processes in CLIM

• To: doughty@fuji.ila.com
• Subject: Using Processes in CLIM
• From: Jon L White <jonl%kuwait@lucid.com>
• Date: Tue, 2 Apr 91 14:16:19 PST
• Cc: clim@BBN.COM
• In-Reply-To: Dennis L. Doughty's message of Tue, 2 Apr 91 13:59 EST <19910402185908.8.DOUGHTY@BUGS-BUNNY.ILA.COM>

re: The real issue here is not the portability of CLIM (which has
    already been demonstrated to single-process environments),
    but the portability of applications which wish to use CLIM.
    Anyone writing an application which *requires* multi-tasking
    will be hard-pressed to port it to MACL 2.0, no matter what
    support CLIM provides.  We have already made his life easier
    . . . but we can't eliminate entirely his
    need to be aware of the limitations of his delivery platform.

I had supposed that a "real" question was indeed the portability of CLIM
in the same sense that there is a question about the portability of PCL. 
It simply IS NOT a program written totally in Common Lisp;  it has required
a considerable amount of implementation-specific effort to make CLIM 
workable on any given vendor's product, and it is "portable" only by virtue 
of the efforts of those who have "joined the consortium and played the game."
I'm sure this is true for the MACL effort as well, and this is the only
point of my previous comment on the matter.

The serious question that will no doubt confront actual CLIM users is
likely not to be "How well will my application port from a 3600 to Franz,"
or "from MACL to Lucid", but rather "How well will my application port
from it successful entry on CLIM "x.y" to CLIM "<x+1>".  It has already
come up in spades (details privately, upon request.)


Incidentally lurking underneath this thread of conversation ("Using
Processes in CLIM") is still the question of just how well a windowing 
_interface_ manager can work without at least a minimal multitasking 
model.  Having worked on both sides of the fence TWICE now -- writing 
windowing applications in systems both with and without multiprocessing
-- I do have an opinion on the matter which I'm sure we don't need to 
have aired now.  ["TWICE" == once in 1983 when the Interlisp-D windowing 
system was implemented before multitasking, and once again in 1986 when 
Lucid's  Window Tool Kit was implemeted before multitasking.]



-- JonL --

0,,

• Using Processes in CLIM
• From: "Dennis L. Doughty" <doughty@fuji.ila.com>

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