Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!pacbell.com!amdahl!netcomsv!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!hbaker
From: hbaker@netcom.com (Henry G. Baker)
Subject: Re: Why do people like C? (Was: Comparison: Beta - Lisp)
Message-ID: <hbakerCxDu55.9HH@netcom.com>
Organization: nil
References: <36g8e6$2f4@relay.tor.hookup.net> <Cx5xsA.681@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> <781453181snz@wildcard.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 1994 01:43:53 GMT
Lines: 18

In article <781453181snz@wildcard.demon.co.uk> cyber_surfer@wildcard.demon.co.uk writes:
>I wonder if AutoLisp supports closures? It wouldn't have to, even
>if it would be handy if it did. I've seen an embedded language in
>another CAD program that didn't support closures, and I can't even
>recall if it used lists.

AutoLisp is similar to XLISP circa 1982 which ran in 32K bytes.
AutoLisp has conses, strings and file handles.  AutoLisp has dynamic
scoping.  AutoLisp had (as of Rel. 9) immutable strings and immutable
lists, but it does have SETQ, so it isn't a completely functional
language.  AutoLisp does _not_ have closures, at least in Rel. 9.

AutoLisp has a persistent database, which is the 'drawing file', but
it isn't exactly general purpose.

      Henry Baker
      Read ftp.netcom.com:/pub/hbaker/README for info on ftp-able papers.

