source: branches/1.1.x/README

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1Armed Bear Common Lisp README
2=============================
3
4GENERAL INFORMATION
5-------------------
6
7Armed Bear Common Lisp is a conforming implementation of ANSI Common
8Lisp that runs in a Java virtual machine.  It compiles Lisp code
9directly to Java byte code.
10
11
12LICENSE
13=======
14
15Armed Bear Common Lisp is distributed under the GNU General Public
16License with a classpath exception (see "Classpath Exception" below).
17
18A copy of GNU General Public License (GPL) is included in this
19distribution, in the file COPYING.
20
21Linking this software statically or dynamically with other modules is
22making a combined work based on this software. Thus, the terms and
23conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
24combination.
25
26** Classpath Exception
27
28As a special exception, the copyright holders of this software give
29you permission to link this software with independent modules to
30produce an executable, regardless of the license terms of these
31independent modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting
32executable under terms of your choice, provided that you also meet,
33for each linked independent module, the terms and conditions of the
34license of that module. An independent module is a module which is not
35derived from or based on this software. If you modify this software,
36you may extend this exception to your version of the software, but you
37are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this
38exception statement from your version.
39
40
41RUNNING FROM BINARY RELEASE
42===========================
43
44After you have downloaded a binary release archive unpack it into its
45own directory. To run ABCL directly from this directory, make sure
46Java (version 1.5 or up) is in your shell's path. Then issue the
47following command:
48
49    cmd$ java -jar abcl.jar
50
51which should result in output like the following
52
53    Armed Bear Common Lisp 1.1.1
54    Java 1.6.0_39 Sun Microsystems Inc.
55    Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM
56    Low-level initialization completed in 0.3 seconds.
57    Startup completed in 2.294 seconds.
58    Type ":help" for a list of available commands.
59    CL-USER(1):
60
61
62BUILDING FROM SOURCE RELEASE
63============================
64
65There are three ways to build ABCL from the source release with the
66preferred (and most tested way) is to being to use the Ant build tool:
67
68* Use the Ant build tool for Java environments.
69
70* Use the NetBeans [67].x IDE to open ABCL as a project.
71
72* Bootstrap ABCL using a Common Lisp implementation. Supported
73  implementations for this process: SBCL, CMUCL, OpenMCL, Allegro
74  CL, LispWorks or CLISP.
75
76In all cases you need a Java 5 or later JDK (JDK 1.[567] have been
77tested).  Just the JRE isn't enough, as you need the Java compiler
78('javac') to compile the Java source of the ABCL implementation.
79
80Note that when deploying ABCL having JDK isn't a requirement for the
81installation site, just the equivalent JRE, as ABCL compiles directly
82to byte code, avoiding the need for the 'javac' compiler in deployment
83environments.
84
85
86Using Ant
87---------
88
89Download a binary distribution [Ant version 1.7.1 or greater][1].
90Unpack the files somewhere convenient, ensuring that the 'ant' (or
91'ant.bat' under Windows) executable is in your path and executable.
92
93[1]: http://ant.apache.org/bindownload.cgi
94
95Then simply executing
96
97    unix$ ant
98
99or
100
101    dos> ant.bat
102
103from the directory containing this README file will create an
104executable wrapper ('abcl' under UNIX, 'abcl.bat' under Windows).  Use
105this wrapper to start ABCL.
106
107
108Using NetBeans
109--------------
110
111Obtain and install the [NetBeans IDE][2]. One should be able to open
112the ABCL directory as a project in the Netbeans 6.x application,
113whereupon the usual build, run, and debug targets as invoked in the
114GUI are available.
115
116[2]: http://netbeans.org/downloads/
117
118
119Building from Lisp
120------------------
121
122Building from a Lisp is the most venerable and untested way of
123building ABCL.  It produces a "non-standard" version of the
124distribution that doesn't share build instructions with the previous
125two methods, but it still may be of interest to those who absolutely
126don't want to know anything about Java.
127
128First, copy the file 'customizations.lisp.in' to 'customization.lisp',
129in the directory containing this README file, editing to suit your
130situation, paying attention to the comments in the file.  The critical
131step is to have Lisp special variable '*JDK*' point to the root of the
132Java Development Kit.  Underneath the directory referenced by the
133value of '*JDK*' there should be an executable Java compiler in
134'bin/javac' ('bin/java.exe' under Windows).
135
136Then, one may either use the 'build-from-lisp.sh' shell script or load
137the necessary files into your Lisp image by hand.
138
139** Using the 'build-from-lisp.sh' script
140
141Under UNIX-like systems, you may simply invoke the
142'build-from-lisp.sh' script as './build-from-lisp.sh
143<lisp-of-choice>', e.g.
144
145    unix$ ./build-from-lisp.sh sbcl
146
147After a successful build, you may use 'abcl' ('abcl.bat' on Windows)
148to start ABCL.  Note that this wrappers contain absolute paths, so
149you'll need to edit them if you move things around after the build.
150
151If you're developing on ABCL, you may want to use
152
153    unix$ ./build-from-lisp.sh <implementation> --clean=nil
154
155to not do a full rebuild.
156
157In case of failure in the javac stage, you might try this:
158
159    unix$ ./build-from-lisp.sh <implementation> --full=t --clean=t --batch=nil
160
161This invokes javac separately for each .java file, which avoids running
162into limitations on command line length (but is a lot slower).
163
164** Building from another Lisp by hand
165
166There is also an ASDF definition in 'abcl.asd' for the BUILD-ABCL
167which can be used to load the necessary Lisp definitions, after which
168
169    CL-USER> (build-abcl:build-abcl :clean t :full t)
170
171will build ABCL.  If ASDF isn't present, simply LOAD the
172'customizations.lisp' and 'build-abcl.lisp' files to achieve the same
173effect as loading the ASDF definition.
174
175
176BUGS
177====
178
179ABCL now has a manual stating its conformance to the ANSI standard,
180providing a compliant and practical Common Lisp implementation. 
181
182ABCL is a conforming ANSI Common Lisp implementation.  Any other
183behavior should be reported as a bug.
184
185The secondary and tertiary values of CL:LISP-IMPLEMENTATION-VERSION
186provide additional information about the exact JVM runtime which ABCL
187finds itself hosted upon which may be especially useful when
188discussing and tracking issues on the Internet.
189
190
191### Tests
192
193ABCL 1.1.1 now fails only 1[23] out of 21708 total tests in the ANSI CL
194test suite (derived from the tests originally written for GCL).
195
196Maxima's test suite runs without failures.
197
198ABCL comes with a test suite, see the output of `ant help.test` for more
199information.
200
201### Deficiencies
202
203The MOP implementation is incompletel untested.
204
205Patches to address any of the issues mentioned above will
206be gladly accepted.
207
208# Contact
209
210Please report problems to the development mailing list:
211
212    <armedbear-devel@common-lisp.net>
213
214Have fun!
215
216# Authors
217
218On behalf of all ABCL development team and contributors,
219
220    Mark Evenson
221    Erik Huelsmann
222    Rudolf Schlatte
223    Alessio Stalla
224    Ville Voutilainen
225
226February 2013
227
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