December 6, 2007

New version of Ready Lisp for Mac OS X

There is a new version of Ready Lisp for Mac OS X available. This version is based on SBCL 1.0.12.17, and requires OS X Leopard 10.5. The most notable change from the previous version is that it is now fully universal, supporting PowerPC and 32- bit and 64-bit Intel machines. Also, threading has been turned on for Intel processor. See the NEWS below.

What is Ready Lisp? It’s a binding together of several popular Lisp packages for OS X, including: Aquamacs, SBCL and SLIME. Once downloaded, you’ll have a single application bundle which you can double-click – and find yourself in a fully configured Common Lisp REPL. It’s ideal for OS X users who want to try out Lisp with a minimum of hassle. The download is approximately 87 megabytes.

There is a GnuPG signature for this file in the same directory; append .asc to the above filename to download it. To install my public key onto your keyring, use this command:

$ gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv 0x824715A0

Once installed, you can verify the download using the following command:

$ gpg --verify ReadyLisp-1.0.12-10.5.1.dmg.asc

Below is a full rundown of what’s new.

Now fully universal

Ready Lisp is now fully universal, and runs on the following platforms:

  • Intel 64-bit
  • Intel 32-bit
  • PowerPC 32-bit

There is no port of SBCL to 64-bit PowerPC. Experimental threading has been enabled for both Intel platforms.

Updated versions

The following pieces were updated:

  • SBCL, to version 1.0.12.17
  • SLIME, to CVS version 2007-12-06

Aquamacs remains at version 1.2a.

Full Info documentation

Info documentation for the Common Lisp pieces is now bundled in. Just type C-h i to read it. Also, when editing Common Lisp files, you can type C-h f to instantly access the HyperSpec index. In Emacs Lisp files, C-h f will get you help on Emacs Lisp functions.

There is also HTML and PDF versions of all documentation in:

  • Ready Lisp.app/Contents/Resources/html
  • Ready Lisp.app/Contents/Resources/doc

More libraries

There are a few more Common Lisp libraries bundled in the core file with this release:

  • CL-FAD
  • LOCAL-TIME
  • SERIES
  • MEMOIZE
  • CL-PPCRE

I find these libraries very handy, but mainly I’m including them because the upcoming release of my CL-Ledger accounting tool depends on them, so it will work for Ready Lisp users out-of-the-box. See the “doc” subdirectory above for documentation on how to use these libraries (except MEMOIZE, which does not have separate documentation; use memoize:memoize-function to mark a function as memoized).