Questions

[Steve Strassmann <straz@cambridge.apple.com>]

>Date: 23 Apr 92 03:53 GMT
>From: CONDON.TOM@AppleLink.Apple.COM (Condon, Thomas,APD)
>Subject: Questions
>To: INFO-MACL@CAMBRIDGE.APPLE.COM
>
>I'm new to the MCL world.  I have a few questions:
> 
>1.) info-macl - I'm using Applelink to send messages to info-macl. I have read
>that it is a bulletin board with all sorts of neat things to download (i.e.
>examples, extensions and the like).  If this is true, how can I access these?
>Can it be done through Applelink?  At present, I can only read messages that
>are posted and sent on to the group address on Applelink.

Welcome! The info-mcl@cambridge.apple.com mailing list is echoed on AppleLink 
as the INFO.MCL$ group. This saves AppleLink users from added costs for reading 
Internet mail.

There's an awful lot of files available for downloading, but these are only 
accessible to folks with ftp access on the internet. This is on the machine named
cambridge.apple.com. If you can wait till the final release of MCL, we'll
be including a huge contrib library on the cd-rom. 

>2.)  MCL looks like a great environment.  Does Apple publish the code fot its
>class library as it does for MacApp?  Perhaps I'm being dense, but I cannot
>find the code that implements the classes for views and events and so on....  I
>come from the MacApp/C++/Object Pascal world.  It would seem strange if Apple
>did not include that code.

MCL comes with a class library, but it's not as extensive as MacApp.
Most aspects of the user interface like windows and menus are CLOS objects, and 
many MCL users tend to find it relatively painless to build what they need from 
what MCL provides, since development time is so much faster than other environments.
For example, you can make a Macintosh window simply by typing "(make-instance 'window)"
and hitting the return key. Check the corresponding sections of your MCL manual 
for details, and also look through the Examples folder that came with MCL. 

We publish some, but not all of our source code for MCL. In addition to the sources
that came with MCL 2.0b, some more will be included on the CD-ROM. I don't know offhand
which parts, however.

>3.)  Are there any browsers for CLOS?

There's several on our ftp server (see above). Also, you can get one for a song
(literally!) from John Forge at ExperTelligence. Send him a blank floppy and the lyrics
from a song, and he'll send you their ExperBrowser. You can reach them at
phone: (805) 967-1797, fax: (805) 964-8448, Applelink: D2042
 
>4.)  Are there any external class libraries readily available for CLOS?

Common Lisp has built-in support for many things which in other languages would 
require external libraries. Also, Common Lisp has many constructs (like the
WITH-OPEN-FILE macro) which are very handy yet are conceptually quite different
than what you may have come to expect from MacApp.

Since most lisp users have traditionally had access to the internet, lots of useful 
lisp code can be found all over the place there, usually for free. A good place to 
start, other than our own server, is the CMU collection at a.gp.cs.cmu.edu
in /usr/mkant/Public. For those without internet access, I hope the MCL cd-rom 
will be a good source when it becomes available.