Re: MCL, Powerbook 170

[STEVE.M@AppleLink.Apple.COM (Carbon-based, S Mitchell,APD)]

Ron:
 
> I was thinking about getting a Powerbook 170 8/80, and would like to
> use it for Common Lisp.  Is this a bad idea?  Will I be running out of
> RAM, disk space, or CPU cycles?  Assuming the machine is powerful
> enough, which version of MCL is most manageable now - 1.3.2, or 2.0b1?
 
I recently got a Powerbook 140 8/40 for MCL development so my answer
is emphatically yes. The Mac System takes about 2MB RAM, so I run MCL2
in a 5MB partition, leaving about 1MB for the global clipboard and
another program such as WP or EMail.
 
You should definitely get 2.0b1 because you'll automatically receive
2.0final when it ships, apparently in a couple of months.
 
The PB 170 corresponds to a Mac IIci running in B&W mode, but is
limited to 8MB RAM. If you're going to develop a large application
you'll want to buy a Quadra with 20MB RAM and a larger hard disk
(no matter what you buy you'll still run out of RAM, disk space,
and CPU cycles!).
 
Whatever configuration you settle on, if you're doing development,
you'll probably want a backup medium bigger than floppy disk. I have
been happily using a 42MB SyQuest drive for the past 3 years; there
are a lot of additional options now.
 
To put things in perspective: for learning MCL, a PB 100 6/40 with
MCL2.0b1 in a 4MB partition would be adequate.
 
_Steve