Re: Chestnut Software's Lisp-to-C Translator

[HI.OLEARY@MCC.COM (Michael O'Leary)]

	I recently received a sales packet from Chestnut Software,
	Inc., located in Boston, advertising a Lisp-to-C translator.
	Anyone had any experience with them or their product?  Any
	other recommendations for a good Lisp to C translator?

	Thanks,
	Richard Fikes

    good question--I've just been looking for the same thing.  One
    thing I'm thinking about doing is porting Kyoto Common Lisp
    (basically a CL to C translator from what I've heard) to the
    amiga.  I have basically no idea yet what this entails since I
    just ftp'ed the KCL source and haven't had a chance to look at
    it...

    monty
    kosma@alan.decnet.lockheed.com

Calling KCL a lisp-to-c translator is a bit of a misnomer.  It does
translate Common Lisp functions into C code and then compile and
execute that code, but the C code that is generated is not intended to
be human-readable.  If you want to modify your program, it would
probably be very difficult to make the changes at the C code level.

I don't know much about the Chestnut product, but it is a real
translator.  Part of its product is a set of libraries of C functions
that parallel several commonly used Lisp functions.  The translator
produces code that calls these library functions extensively.
Apparently Chestnut allows you to distribute the libraries with your
translated code at little or no charge.  It's the translator itself
that costs money.
	Michael O'Leary
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