FUGUE.3

[fateman%ucbdali@Berkeley (Richard Fateman)]

                        FUGUE Notes

               An occasional publication of the
    Franz Lisp User Group under Unix and Eunice (FUGUE)

                  Number 3 (January, 1984)
                edited by Richard J. Fateman
                  University of California
                     Berkeley CA 94720
                            USA
                      fateman@berkeley

_1.  _W_e_l_c_o_m_e!

     It seems about time  to  publish  the  third  of  these
newsletters,  since  we  have  accumulated  a  number of new
items.  We would also like to relay to others such  informa-
tion as has been forwarded to us. The reports of projects at
Berkeley (and elsewhere) may strike sympathetic chords  with
other research.

_2.  _N_e_w _i_m_p_l_e_m_e_n_t_a_t_i_o_n_s

     Franz now runs on a number of Motorola 68000 and  68010
systems,  including  DUAL,  PIXEL,  Apple-LISA  (UNIX),  and
undoubtedly a large number of other UNISOFT Inc. UNIX ports.
(The  LISA  has  only  a 1 megabyte address space, and hence
cannot run the compiler.  It can  load  cross-compiled  pro-
grams.)  Non-UNISOFT  UNIX  systems we have Franz running on
include the 4.2BSD" Sun Microsystems operating system.

     Some work is beginning on  high-speed  VLSI  chips  for
Lisp, using the reduced instruction set technology which has
been successfully used at UCB in the past.  More information
on this will be available in the near future.

_3.  _N_e_w _p_r_o_g_r_a_m_s

_3._1.  _V_a_x_i_m_a _a_n_d _A_l_g_e_b_r_a_i_c _M_a_n_i_p_u_l_a_t_i_o_n

     Macsyma runs on the 68000 workstations with  sufficient
memory  both virtual and real.  At least 4 megabytes of vir-
tual is needed, but benchmarks suggest  that  anything  less
than  2 megabytes of real memory is painful.  We recommend 4
or more real megabytes.  The PIXEL machine with 6  megabytes
(unpaged) is our fastest real-time Macsyma system, (CPU-time
is about 25% longer than reported VAX-780 CPU time, but more
to the point, CPU-time is equal to real-time).  Distribution
____________________
9   UNIX, Eunice, Franz Lisp, may be trademarks of Bell Labs,
SRI Int'l, and Univ. of Calif.



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of 68000 Macsyma will presumably be done by Symbolics, (con-
tact  RP@mit-mc,  with  a  cc to fateman@berkeley if you are
interested).

     Development of a new algebra system and  user  applica-
tion  modules  is  proceeding,  and  a  programming language
called Newspeak, initially implemented on top of  Franz,  is
the  principal vehicle. This is described in John Foderaro's
PhD dissertation, available from the  CS  Division  at  UCB.
(Newspeak  is  hierarchical,  object-oriented,  and strongly
typed;  is  compiler-based,  and  should  provide  efficient
access  to  machine  resources).   While the algebra code is
progressing well, we are not yet ready to set a release date
for the user-end of the system, tentatively named Xi.

_4.  _N_e_w _f_e_a_t_u_r_e_s

     As usual,  various  performance  enhancements  and  bug
fixes  have  been  incorporated in versions of Franz (now on
Opus 38.87 and the compiler, Liszt 8.39) Most  changes  made
it  into  the  recent Berkeley 4.2BSD UNIX distribution, and
reported alterations will not be repeated here.

_5.  _O_t_h_e_r _L_i_s_p_s

     We understand that a version of PSL will  be  supported
by  Hewlett  Packard,  on  its workstations, and that Common
Lisp, from DEC will  have  initial  field-test  in  January,
1984.   We  believe  PSL  should be available from Utah in a
form for running on 4.2BSD VAX UNIX; similarly for "T"  from
Cognitive  Systems.   We  believe that a Common-Lisp support
package for Franz may be constructed, but probably not at UC
under current funding. (see Business news below, though).

_6.  _W_o_r_k _i_n _P_r_o_g_r_e_s_s

_6._1.  _G_r_a_p_h_i_c_s

     Gregg Foster has  constructed  a  graphics  Franz  Lisp
which  includes  the  full Sun Microsystems Graphics package
for Sun-2 systems, and Keith Sklower has  constructed  a  C-
structure  package  in  Franz  to enable programmers to more
easily construct arbitrary C-structures in Lisp, to pass  to
C.  Various  demonstration  programs  have  been  written to
access the smooth-curve plotting capabilities, variable-size
fonts, etc.

_6._2.  _I_B_M _F_r_a_n_z

     Still more nibbles on this one, but not yet. We heard a
rumor  of  work  at  Columbia University. (also see the next
item.)
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_7.  _B_u_s_i_n_e_s_s _N_e_w_s

_7._1.  _F_r_a_n_z _I_n_c

     A new software company has been formed to support Franz
and  application  programs,  and  is  seeking customers in 3
categories: (a) manufacturers of hardware wishing to  obtain
a  Lisp  system  and/or Lisp support; (b) software producers
who wish to have reliable access to experts  in  Franz,  for
enhancement,  support, training or porting of existing code.
(c) end-users who are using Franz or applications written in
Franz and need help in customizing, debugging, conversion to
or from other dialects, etc.

     The University of California will continue  to  distri-
bute  Franz  Lisp  on  its current basis, but your questions
about support in any of these categories,  or  about  future
plans,  can be directed to Franz Inc. Most of the principals
at UC will be participating in this venture.  Contact  Franz
Inc. via fkunze@berkeley, or (to avoid abuse of various net-
work privileges), Fritz Kunze, President, Franz  Inc.,  6321
Thornhill Drive, Oakland, Ca 94611 (415) 339-1481.






























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