Re: full-blown application in MACL?

[Josh Lubell <lubell@cs.UMD.EDU>]

Lee Spector writes:

        I'm wondering if someone who's already playing
	with 2.0 could comment on other application-generation
        features of 2.0.  Specifically, I'd like to know if there are
        improvements with respect to application size and
        non-intrusive GC, but I'd like to hear about any related
	features as well.

I have been using MCL 2.0 to build a system for specifying and
enforcing integrity constraints on an object-oriented knowledge base.
Like you heard, 2.0 is a lot better than 1.3.2.  It is faster, it has
CLOS, and the support for building user interfaces is much better
(there is a library of CLOS classes for interface objects and a
graphical editor for laying out dialogs and menus).

However, application sizes are still large, and GC is intrusive unless
your machine has a lot of memory.
Also, if you want to use metaobject protocol functionality not in 2.0,
you need to load PCL (which makes your applications even bigger).

The latest alpha version of 2.0 (2.0.5) is missing some of the
functionality in Steele II (most notably, logical pathnames).
Although it is already a neat environment, the final version of 2.0
will be even better if it is consistent with Steele II and has some of
the MOP.

Josh