Modular MCL (was: MCL in Academia (was: applications sizes, tree shakers, and

[psto@xs4all.nl (Peter Stone)]

>now we have about 70 kB space left. When we talk to teachers or other
>kind of users we can't say "sorry, it doesn't fit on a floppy anymore
>but hey it really has an improved Lisp inspector.." They don't care
>about these things.

How about making MCL modular? I've implemented a simple but nice solution
to Symbolic Composer. When booting it checks if there are any fasl files
in Modules folder, and loads them. Loading takes a bit extra time but this
way other MCL users can compile new extensions to it.

Similarly, MCL could be broken to basic kernel, and inspectors etc useful 
extensions are supported as fasl files. If you don't need them drag them 
away from Extensions. This would allow to keep MCL the current size and 
solve the terrible Word 6 scenario.

Modularity could let MCL evolve toward a sort of Open Lisp Operating System 
in a way similar to Mac OS with control panels and extensions.

Peter