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From: dkuhlman@netcom.com (G. David Kuhlman)
Subject: Re: SCM, ELK, and other free implementations
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Date: Fri, 7 Apr 1995 14:43:09 GMT
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Luigi Semenzato (ls@barracuda.engr.sgi.com) wrote:
: Greetings,

: I find it convenient to use Scheme for certain system software
: that might end up being bundled in a product.  The current license
: for SCM (the GNU public license) is a bit too restrictive to
: include SCM in the distribution.  I have spoken with the author
: (Aubrey Jaffer) who has mentioned that SCM is the base for GUILE,
: the gnew GNU extension language in the works.  Apparently GUILE
: will be distributed in a less restrictive manner (X11 license).
: Does anybody know if I can get a version of GUILE with such
: license now?

You can find a preliminary version of Guile at ftp site:

    ftp.cygnus.com:pub/lord/guile-i.tar.gz

You might send a message to 

    lord@cygnus.com

asking about licensing.  I'm interested in Guile also.  If
you learn anything and would like to pass it along, I'm listening.


: I have also looked at ELK, whose license does not prohibit
: its use in a product.  ELK has all the desired functionality but
: seems to be much slower than SCM.  Can anybody confirm that?  It
: garbage collects a great deal: perhaps tuning the collector might
: help?

The version of Elk that I have (2.2) has two forms of garbage
collection: (1) stop-and-copy and (2) generational.  Is it 
possible that the "other one" would work better?  Selection
of which garbage collector to use is done by an #ifdef at the
bottom of heap.c.

: What other choices do I have?  I need a small system, no bigger
: than SCM or ELK.

: Thanks   ---Luigi

: P.S.  I am not trying to be cheap and commercially exploit the
: work of others.  I am only a small cog of the corporate machine,
: trying to get his job done, and to show the hordes of disbelievers
: that Lisp can be a practical and effective solution to many problems.
-- 
----------------------
Dave Kuhlman
Reify, Redwood City, CA
Internet:   dkuhlman@netcom.com
----------------------
