Query from Siemens

[Scott.Fahlman@SEF-PMAX.SLISP.CS.CMU.EDU]

Most of this should probably have be answered by William when he reappears.

-- Scott

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From: Klaus Daessler <ztivax!dae@relay.EU.net>
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 91 17:10:27 +0100
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To: fahlman@RI.CMU.EDU


  Thomas Manzke
  SNI AG
  STM SD 211
  Otto-Hahn-Ring 6
  D-8000 Muenchen 83
  Germany


  Dear Prof. Fahlman,

  I am working in the group of Klaus Daessler and I am concerned with the
  portation of CMU LISP to the 386/486-processor running with UNIX.

  Since the new version of CMU-LISP runs on a MIPS machine a portation of it
  to a MIPS machine running with UNIX 5.4 (i.e. TARGON 4400) seems very 
  interesting to us.
  Because of major differences between Mach and UNIX we want to estimate
  the effort to do this job.
  
  Our little experience with the new CMU LISP sources and the MACH operating
  system yields only a vague picture of the problems that might occur during
  the portation.

  So it would be very helpful for us if you could answer our following
  questions:

  - CMU LISP boots from a corefile in any case. As default it loads a core file
    named /usr/misc/.cmucl/lib/lisp.core . We don't have this file. Instead we
    have ldb/kernel.core. Can we use this file for booting ?
    It has a size of about 6.5 MB. Which parts of
    CMU LISP are included in this file ? Is the compiler part of it ?
    Is the core file os-independant ? 
    We will have to change the position of LISP objects in the virtual memory.
    Are there direct address references to non LISP objects (i.e. C variables or
    functions) inside the code vectors ?
    Are there any address references to non LISP objects inside LISP data ?
    Are VOP's called directly by there address ?

  - The file ldb/ldb.map lists a lot of C-externals, which are unknown under
    our UNIX. Are they really all needed ?
    For example there are about ten functions dealing with threads. None of
    this functions is called inside a C source and only thread_reply is defined
    as a C routine (in code/syscall.lisp). Does CMU LISP use threads ?
    There are about ten functions dealing with tasks, but only task_self is
    called within a C source. In addition task_notify is declared as a C
    routine. Does CMU LISP use more than one task ?
    Is there any C function called by it's address and not by it's name ?

  - Does CMU LISP still use link tables ?

  - Does CMU LISP detect a control stack overflow caused by an endless
    recursion ?

  - Does CMU LISP detect a binding stack overflow ?

  - Which scope do special declarations have (CLtL1 or CLtL2) ?

  - Which MACH version is required by CMU LISP ?
    Are there major differences to our RT-version 2.5 ?


  Many thanks for your help 

		Thomas Manzke 

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