Re: Your MCL Feedback

[lincoln@cshl.org (Steve Lincoln)]

>>> Many people have interpreted this to mean that Apple has "killed" MCL ... 

Oh give me a break.

We've been hearing about PowerPC Macs and PowerPC development tools for 1-2
years now. If Apple had any commitment to keeping MCL alive, it seems to me
that they would have accomplished the process of either porting OR finding
someone to port MCL over a year ago.  Instead we got assurances about a future
PowerPC version (with, of course, no commitments in writing) and NO ACTION WAS
HAPPENING.  After Apple makes a decision on MCL, we must still be talking about
a year or more from 
then until a product exists, no?

Death by neglect happened some time ago.

Those of us who maintain software for (gasp) others to use have commitments we
need to keep. This requires us to use tools for which commitments to us are
stated and kept. For me, twiddling my thumbs while Apple figures out what it is
doing is not an option.

Given the amount of MCL specific stuff I suspect most of us have, any port to
any non-MCL Lisp is a rewrite. So, why not rewrite in a platform idependent
way, or rewrite for another platform?