HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: cartier@math.uqam.ca (Guillaume Cartier)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: Slow macintosh memory allocation
Date: 21 Dec 92 20:48:32 GMT

I have a program that runs well for some time
and then gradually becomes slower and slower and slower.

I have tracked the problem down to the fact that
when it has becomed very slow, a single

(make-record :rgbcolor) (or any mac memory allocation)

takes almost half a second!

Strangely, at this point, a (ROOM) shows 145K of free
Mac Heap.

Any idea someone?
Thanks.

*********************************************************************
* Guillaume Cartier                 (514) 844-5294 (maison)         *
* L.A.C.I.M.                        (514) 987-4290 (bureau)         *
* Universite du Quebec a Montreal   (514) 987-8477 (telecopieur)    *
* Montreal, Quebec, Canada          cartier@math.uqam.ca (internet) *
*********************************************************************
From: hall@allegra.att.com (Bob Hall)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: revert file
Date: 22 Dec 92 20:25:25 GMT

1. Create a new file buffer in Fred
2. Type in the following form
  (with-open-file (str "hard disk:lisp code:server:glop"
                       :direction :output
                       :if-exists :supersede)
    (format str "~%Blatzorg"))
3. Save it as the file "hard disk:lisp code:server:glop" (or whatever)
4. Evaluate the form

Question: Why is the Revert menu item in the File menu is disabled?
In fact, fred just lets me edit the buffer and save it, completely
oblivious to the fact that the file has changed.

-- Bob
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
From: straz@cambridge.apple.com (Steve Strassmann)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: new metering tool for MCL available
Date: 1 Jan 93 21:59:52 GMT

This is now available at CMU and also at
cambridge.apple.com:/pub/MCL2/contrib/metering.lisp

-----------
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 93 01:03:51 EST
From: Mark.Kantrowitz@GLINDA.OZ.CS.CMU.EDU
To: mkant@CS.CMU.EDU
Subject: Metering Version 2.0

A new version of the Metering system (code profiler) is now available
in ftp.cs.cmu.edu:/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/mkant/Public/Lisp as the file
metering.lisp. (Be sure to cd to this directory in one fell swoop.)

This version has been tested in the following lisps:
      Macintosh Common Lisp (2.0)
      Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp (1.3.2)
      CMU Common Lisp (16d, Python Compiler 1.0 ) :new-compiler
      CMU Common Lisp (M2.9 15-Aug-90, Compiler M1.8 15-Aug-90) 
      ExCL (Franz Allegro CL 4.1 [SPARC R1] 8/28/92 14:06) :allegro-v4.1
      ExCL (Franz Allegro CL 4.0.1 [Sun4] 2/8/91)       :allegro-v4.0
      ExCL (Franz Allegro CL 3.1.12 [DEC 3100] 11/19/90) :allegro-v3.1
      Lucid Common Lisp (4.0.1 HP-700 12-Aug-91)
      Lucid Common Lisp (3.0)
      Lucid CL (Version 2.1 6-DEC-87)  
      AKCL (1.86, June 30, 1987 or later)
      Ibuki Common Lisp (Version 2, release 01.027)

The key new features are support for MCL 2.0, Franz Allegro 4.1, Lucid
4.0 and CMU CL 16d.

--mark

[below: documentation excerpt from metering.lisp]

;;; ****************************************************************
;;; Metering System ************************************************
;;; ****************************************************************
;;;
;;; The Metering System is a portable Common Lisp code profiling tool.
;;; It gathers timing and consing statistics for specified functions 
;;; while a program is running.
;;;
;;; The Metering System is a combination of 
;;;   o  the Monitor package written by Chris McConnell
;;;   o  the Profile package written by Skef Wholey and Rob MacLachlan
;;; The two systems were merged and extended by Mark Kantrowitz.
;;; 
;;; Address: Carnegie Mellon University
;;;          School of Computer Science
;;;          Pittsburgh, PA 15213
;;;
;;; This code is in the public domain and is distributed without warranty
;;; of any kind. 
;;;
;;; Bug reports, comments, and suggestions should be sent to mkant@cs.cmu.edu.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl,comp.lang.clos,comp.lang.lisp
From: omar@kahlua.cc.vanderbilt.edu (Omar Patino-Siliceo)
Subject: Taboo: MCL 2.0 and PCL (March 92 or newer)
Followup-To: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Keywords: MCL, PCL, MOP
Reply-To: omar@kahlua.cc.vanderbilt.edu
Organization: Vanderbilt University
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 16:38:37 GMT

Season's Greetings to all!

I've been using Allegro CL 3.X plus PCL for quite some time. I just bought MCL  
2.0 and found out that it does not [yet] fully implement the meta object  
protocol (neither does PCL but I can live with what PCL currently offers).

My application requires the use of the class option :metaclass in the macro  
defclass, and the dynamic change of class definitions.

Has anybody built (ported) PCL to MCL 2.0? I'm spoiled using UNIX systems. All  
I had to do (under that kind of environment) in order to compile PCL was to  
modify a few lines (subdirectory paths and such) and run a make command. I have  
no idea how to do it in MCL. Any help that you can provide will be greatly  
appreciated.

--
   __    _            _
  /  \	| |  Omar Patino-Siliceo * Computer Ctr. Vanderbilt Univ. *  Box 1375,
 |    | |-   Sta. B. Nashville, TN 37235.  ***   ``Research is what I am doing
 _\  /_ | \  when I don't know what I'm doing''          --- Wernner von Braun
From: myoung@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Michael D Young)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: Speed and CM
Date: 27 Dec 92 14:59:09 GMT

For academics, and particularly those in Political Science, who need a
connection to a Connection Machine , Gavan Duffy (gavan@phoenix.npac.syr.edu)
has a machine available and can provide access.


Michael Young
From: language@skdad.usask.ca
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: colour fonts
Date: 22 Dec 92 06:36:10 GMT

has anyone built,  or is it possible to build in a colour submenu in
with the font menus provided by font-menus.Lisp?
    -john
From: slack@starbase.MITRE.ORG (M. G. Slack)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: speed freak buys farm?
Date: 28 Dec 92 16:32:25 GMT
Path: cambridge.apple.com!apple!netcomsv!netcom.com!hauser
   From: hauser@netcom.com (Michael Hauser)
   Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
   Summary: how about multiple Radius Rocket 33s?
   Date: 26 Dec 92 04:38:46 GMT
   References: <725148821.5417973@AppleLink.Apple.COM>
   Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)
   Lines: 7

   Have you considered using multiple Radius Rocket 33s instead of a farm of
   Quadra 950s? The horsepower is the same but the Rockets would have the
   advantage of much lower cost and faster data transfer between processors
   (using RocketShare). You should be able to use several Rockets per host
   Mac, depending on the number of slots and power supply.

   Michael Hauser

Good luck with this one.  I have a Rocket and am very dissapointed to find that
MCL is about the only application that I cannot run on it using the new
RocketShare environment to which you reference.

Marc
From: bonura@apple.com (Tom Bonura)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: Re: Speed freak needs help
Date: 23 Dec 92 17:41:46 GMT

> John Koza extols TI Explorers, but after finally tracking down someone who
> claims to have a small number of new Explorer systems, I am not sure whether
>we
> would see anything like the necessary acceleration, and the systems are not
> cheap.

I was using TI's microexplorer for a couple of projects before MCL2.0 was
available.  Some rough benchmarks indicated that the microexplorer was 2-4
times faster than MCL running on an fx (depending on what was being
measured).  I think the explorer II is not radically faster than the
microexplorer.  Given that the 950 is faster than the fx, I would seriously
doubt that the performance enhancements you need would come from switching
hardware.

Tom
From: gasp@theory.lcs.mit.edu (Isaac Kohane)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: Performance analysis
Date: 24 Dec 92 16:31:55 GMT
Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science


Back in the bad old days, there was a very nice tool on the Xerox
"Dandelions" in Interlisp which provided a graphical interface to the
function-call hierarchy in program. Also, a related program would
generate very useful statistics regarding how much time was spend
executing each function. Is there anything remotely like this in MCL2
somewhere on the CD-ROM or at an FTP site?

Isaac (aka Zak)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
From: John Matthews <jm@vcd.hp.com>
Subject: Stand alone Lisp, try#2
X-Useragent: Nuntius v1.1a5
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 23:00:33 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard

Sorry about the blank notes, I'm having a few problems with my
news server.

I am interested in 1) writing some prototype/experimental
stand-alone programs, such as init's, cdev's etc...
and 2) prototyping new modules within
my existing large C++ programs .
Since these are prototypes, I'm more concerned about
minimizing my development time than I am with
time or memory efficiency. Thus I would like to use
a dynamic language such as Lisp, with it's automatic
garbage collection and incremental compilation
abilities.

I've tried contacting (by phone message) the developers
of MacScheme, but have received no replies.

The current Macintosh Lisp implementations I know
about all require an application environment in which
to run. While this won't work for wish #1 above,
it might work for wish #2 IF I can do an application
context switch between my program and the Lisp
environment, combined with some foriegn function
library.

Any replies to #1 or #2 above posted to this group
would be appreciated.

John Matthews
Hewlett-Packard
From: joswig@informatik.uni-hamburg.de (Rainer Joswig)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: MEMBER bug!
Date: 25 Dec 92 10:12:55 GMT

Hi there,

Ralf Moeller (these guys even use MCL during their Christmas holidays - amazing)
reported a fatal bug in MCL.

The combination of :test-not and :key parameters immediately **crashes** the Mac.

(member 1 '((1) (2)) :key #'first :test-not #'eql)


Be careful!


;;;; MCL nominated for an award? I like it!


Rainer Joswig

Email: joswig@informatik.uni-hamburg.de
From: slack@starbase.MITRE.ORG (M. G. Slack)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: Apple Events
Date: 22 Dec 92 20:28:21 GMT


I've been playing with apple events using MCL 

However I seem to have run into a problem involving unexplained useage of the
Mac Heap.  I have narrowed it down to a call to the #_AESend call.  As it turns
out the mac heap is being used in such a way that the GC facility will not
reclaim the used space.  As a result the mac Heap keeps growing and growing...

I have seen to all the records that I create but cannot figure out where the
space is being lost.  

The apple event that is being sent has a #$keyDirectObject parameter stuffed
into it which is of type (record :some-type).

It would seem that this is a problem as it will eventually crash the system
when the mac heap grows to consume all free space.

Any clues?

Marc

Happy Holidays
From: cartier@math.uqam.ca (Guillaume Cartier)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: Slow macintosh memory allocation (summary)
Date: 22 Dec 92 16:11:31 GMT

Many thanks to everybody who answered my question:

<---
| I have a program that runs well for some time
| and then gradually becomes slower and slower and slower.
| 
| I have tracked the problem down to the fact that
| when it has becomed very slow, a single
| 
| (make-record :rgbcolor) (or any mac memory allocation)
| 
| takes almost half a second!
| 
| Strangely, at this point, a (ROOM) shows 145K of free
| Mac Heap.
--->

The problem was due to the Mac Heap becoming very fragmented
because of mac pointers and handles that I failed to dispose of.

In solving the problem, MCL's undocumented feature of GC'able
mac pointers was *very* usefull (the GC is much better at keeping
track of what's no longer in use than myself!).

Guillaume.

*********************************************************************
* Guillaume Cartier                 (514) 844-5294 (maison)         *
* L.A.C.I.M.                        (514) 987-4290 (bureau)         *
* Universite du Quebec a Montreal   (514) 987-8477 (telecopieur)    *
* Montreal, Quebec, Canada          cartier@math.uqam.ca (internet) *
*********************************************************************
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
From: gasp@theory.lcs.mit.edu (Isaac Kohane)
Subject: Performance analysis
Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
Distribution: co
Date: 24 Dec 92 16:31:55 GMT
X-Note1: mail msgid was <GASP.92Dec24113155@luke.lcs.mit.edu>
X-Note2: message-id generated by recnews


Back in the bad old days, there was a very nice tool on the Xerox
"Dandelions" in Interlisp which provided a graphical interface to the
function-call hierarchy in program. Also, a related program would
generate very useful statistics regarding how much time was spend
executing each function. Is there anything remotely like this in MCL2
somewhere on the CD-ROM or at an FTP site?

Isaac (aka Zak)
From: mmeehan@eesof.com (Mike Meehan)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: Re: Additional Joy...
Date: 22 Dec 92 17:55:17 GMT


I would also like to extend congratulations to the MCL developers (and the
other depts there i.e. docs, sales, mktg etc.).

I can only hope that the reviewers of the awards have a sense of the care
and level of support given to the customer via this internet link. I often
hold up as example to my organization the excellent "go out of their way"
service available from the mcl developers. This fact coupled with their 
high quality product make it the clear winner in my eyes!

If you were looking for an excellent example of so-called TQM and
concurrent engineering, look no more...


Seasons best to everyone, MM



 Mike Meehan
 Simulation Optimization Technology Group
 EEsof Inc., R&D Department
 5601 Lindero Canyon Road
 Westlake Village CA. 91362
 FAX/VOICE: 818.879.6374

 mmeehan@eesof.com
From: Mark.Kantrowitz@GLINDA.OZ.CS.CMU.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: Pearl Lisp -- PD or Not?
Date: 21 Dec 92 22:33:31 GMT

Thanks to a lot of help from John Doner, we've found a copy of Pearl
CL and instructions on how to modify it with ResEdit to work under
System 7. 

Unfortunately, various people we've talked to at Apple claim that
Pearl was never released into the public domain. If so, we cannot make
our copy available. On the other hand, everybody else we've talked to
seems to think that Pearl was placed in the public domain when Apple
bought Coral. 

I'd like to get to the bottom of this issue, if for no other reason
than to include a definitive entry in the Lisp FAQ. So, if you've got
an "official" letter or announcement from Apple which sheds light on
the status of Pearl, please send me a copy:
	Email: 		mkant@cs.cmu.edu
	US Mail:	Mark Kantrowitz
			School of Computer Science
			Carnegie Mellon University
			5000 Forbes Avenue
			Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891

Thanks,

Mark
From: tcasasent@diamond.kbsi.com
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: More Apple Events
Date: 29 Dec 92 17:29:43 GMT
Organization: Knowledge Based Systems, Inc.

Thanks to All Who Replied Before!

I have confirmed that the appropriate Apple Events are being generated, 
received and processed by and for MCL.  However, the correct event handlers 
are not being used (except for quit for some reason).

I have defined a subclass of application and set an instance of it in 
*application* and written my event handlers on this subclass.  The MCL 
Reference suggests the part about using a subclass (but does not confirm 
that simply setting the *application* variable will always use it).  Yet, 
the quit handler does receive the specialized instance.

I have also tried using the install-appleevent-handler function to no avail.

I am having the same problem though.  Upon startup, neither oapp nor odoc 
events are processed by the correct handlers (we're still holding off on the 
print event since it should be just like the odoc event).  Quit, however, 
still works fine.

After startup, the odoc handler will open documents belonging to the 
application when they are double-clicked, but (as I said above) this event 
gets "mislaid" when initially starting the application.

Can someone who has successfully implemented support for these AppleEvents 
please send me a brief (or detailed) procedure for writing and installing 
these methods?  Perhaps, somewhere, I'm missing something fairly basic.

Thanks,
	-Tod
========================================================================
tcasasent@kbsi.com
========================================================================
The opinions and statements herein expressed are not those of KBSI and,
if attributable to anyone, are mine.
========================================================================
From: lynch@ils.nwu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: Re: Speed freak needs help
Date: 23 Dec 92 20:33:51 GMT


Maybe this is an insane question, but what sort of speed does Koza get with
the Explorer?
Is he getting 10-20 times yours?
Or has he only used small test cases?

----------Quoted message follows:

>Friends,
> 
>I hate to say this, but we are now running into a speed problem with MCL and a
>Quadra 950.  It is of our own making, as I will explain, but I am urgently
>seeking a means of running pretty standard Common Lisp at 10-20 times greater
>speed than MCL 2.0 on a Quadra 950 36/400!  Pretty GUIs are immaterial, and not
>used - it is raw Lisp power that I seek (and we do accept that this will cost).
>[Having said that, this does not mark a departure from MCL for 99% of our work,
>and I am delighted to see that MCL is starting to get the recognition that it
>deserves (congrats, MCL team!).]
> 
>The reason is that we are starting to use John Koza's incredible Genetic
>Programming (mail me if you have not heard of this, and I will send you a list
>of refs. etc.) to optimise stack filters and other things which require
>thousands of iterations of thousands of iterations of thousands of iterations.
>Currently, one decent run takes over week on a Quadra 950, even after some
>serious tuning of code.  We are committed to using Lisp, and other languages
>need not apply.
> 
>One option that I am thinking of is using a farm of Quadras, but it would be
>much neater if we could simply move our code onto another platform.
> 
>John Koza extols TI Explorers, but after finally tracking down someone who
>claims to have a small number of new Explorer systems, I am not sure whether we
>would see anything like the necessary acceleration, and the systems are not
>cheap.  Suggestions as to whether an Explorer might suffice would be welcome
>(and rough estimates on configuration would be even neater - given that the
>code runs OK in 6 meg with MCL, but is clearly doing a lot of GC then).
-- 
--
-- "TANSTAAFL" Rich lynch@ils.nwu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
From: michaelg@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Michael Greenwald)
Subject: Re: Speed freak needs help
Organization: CS Department, Stanford University, California, USA
Date: 23 Dec 92 19:40:41 GMT

moon (David A. Moon) writes:

>							Symbolics still makes 
>Lisp machines, but again without having measured them I think you would find 
>performance on the latest Symbolics machine similar to or less than the 
>Quadra.  (The Symbolics clock rate is half the Quadra clock rate, but the 
>architecture is not much more than twice as efficient.)

I don't know the numbers, this is a non-rhetorical question: How does
the Symbolics single float implementation stack up against the Quadra?
(I'm assuming that the Quadra conses its floats, while the LispM uses
immediates).  If (and it's a big "if"), the application in question is
float-intensive, and the GC is taking a significant part of the
overhead, then perhaps the Symbolics machines (or any machine with
immediate single floats) can give a reasonable performance boost.

But for a factor of 10 or 20, the answer (if any) probably lies in:

>Are you sure the algorithm can't be optimized?  Sometimes that's the fastest 
>and cheapest way to get more speed.  But maybe you already tried that.
From: jwbaxter@halcyon.halcyon.com
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: Re: More Apple Events
Date: 31 Dec 92 09:32:23 GMT

Tod,
   I think it was to you I replied before.  As I said then (if it was to
you), MCL appears to initially install one set of Apple event handlers for
the required events.  Then it receives an 'oapp', or an 'odoc', or a
'pdoc', and finishes setting itself up.
   The latter process involves removing the initial handlers and installing
the handlers which are indeed fielded by the generic functions described in
the documentation.  [That's why a subsequent open document, or a quit, 
fires your method.]

   I watched (I must admit with amazement) with AE Tracker (developer CD,
but Shareware by Chris Huan, so I should be able to mail it to you if
necessary) the handlers being installed and replaced, and the events being
received.

   This method of starting up seems wrong to me...at the very least the AE
chapter in the MCL documents should have at least a tiny discussion of it. 
An initial 'oapp' is one thing, but 'odoc' or 'pdoc' should somehow find
their way to methods which are eagerly awaiting them.

   I don't know enough about MCL to have any idea how you would intercept
the initial 'oapp', 'odoc', or 'pdoc'.  [Only one of those can the the
"initial" one.]
   --John

--------------
John W. Baxter   jwbaxter@halcyon.com   [BAXTER.JOHN on AppleLink, from
AppleLink only.]
From: straz@cambridge.apple.com (Steve Strassmann)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
Subject: MCL nominated for awards
Date: 22 Dec 92 02:22:19 GMT

I have two announcements about MCL's quest for fame.

In 1989, MCL won the MacUser Editor's Choice award for
"Best New Programming Language". In keeping with that tradition...

----
#1:
From: PROMES.J@AppleLink.Apple.COM (Promes, Jackie)

The 1992 Editors' Choice Awards were announced by MacUser and Macintosh Common
Lisp 2.0 is a finalist for the "Eddy" Award.  The Eddy is the Macintosh
industry's most significant honor, recognizing the best Macintosh hardware and
software products released during the year.
 
MCL 2.0 is a finalist in the Best Development Tool category.  The other two
finalists are Frontier 2.0 from UserLand and SoftPolish 1.1 from Language
Systems.
 
The 1992 Eddy Awards will be given to products in 37 categories at a black-tie
ceremony to be held on January 5, 1993, the day before MacWorld opens.  
-----------
#2:
From: ALCABES@AppleLink.Apple.COM (Alcabes, Harvey)

We just heard from Thomas Murphy of Computer Language magazine that Macintosh
Common Lisp 2.0 has been nominated (along with roughly 50 other development
products) for their "Computer Language/Jolt Cola Product Excellence Award" and
their "Computer Language Productivity Award".  

The award winners will be announced on February 22, 1992 at Computer Language's
Software Development '93 conference in Santa Clara, California, and then 
written up in the April issue of Computer Language magazine.  Good luck MCL!
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp.mcl
From: dtschett@saims.skidmore.edu (donna tschetter)
Subject: MicroCom Modem with Mac?
Organization: Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs NY
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Distribution: co
Date: 22 Dec 92 18:58:59 GMT
X-Note1: mail msgid was <1992Dec22.185859.3291@scott.skidmore.edu>
X-Note2: message-id generated by recnews



I have pruchased a MicroCom Modem 9600 Baud and do not know the
Macintosh configuration.  Help!!!  Will the setting for ProCom or 
HyperAccess work?

Any ideas?  Any Microcom users with manual?

e-mail to me, please.