source: tags/0.14.1/j/README

Last change on this file was 11355, checked in by ehuelsmann, 16 years ago

Make the website and the README contain the same numbers.

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1GENERAL INFORMATION
2===================
3
4Armed Bear Common Lisp is an implementation of ANSI Common Lisp that
5runs in a Java virtual machine.  It compiles its code to Java byte code.
6
7
8LICENSE
9=======
10
11Armed Bear Common Lisp is distributed under the GNU General Public
12License with classpath exception (described below).
13
14A copy of GNU General Public License (GPL) is included in this
15distribution, in the file COPYING.
16
17Linking this software statically or dynamically with other modules is
18making a combined work based on this software. Thus, the terms and
19conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
20combination.
21
22As a special exception, the copyright holders of this software give
23you permission to link this software with independent modules to
24produce an executable, regardless of the license terms of these
25independent modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting
26executable under terms of your choice, provided that you also meet,
27for each linked independent module, the terms and conditions of the
28license of that module. An independent module is a module which is not
29derived from or based on this software. If you modify this software,
30you may extend this exception to your version of the software, but you
31are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this
32exception statement from your version.
33
34
35BUILDING
36========
37
38If you want to build ABCL, you have 2 options. The first option
39applies when you come from a lisp background. The second option is more
40appropriate when you come from Java development:
41
42 I) Bootstrap ABCL using a Common Lisp implementation
43    Supported implementations for this process: SBCL, CMUCL, OpenMCL,
44    Allegro CL, LispWorks or CLISP
45
46II) Use the Ant make-like build tool for Java environments
47    The tested lowest working version is Ant 1.7.0
48
49
50In both cases you need a supported JDK version (1.5 and 1.6 have been
51tested).  Just the JRE isn't enough.
52
53
54
55I. Lisp-based build
56-------------------
57
58Copy the file 'customizations.lisp.in' to customization.lisp', in the
59directory containing this README file, editing to suit your situation,
60paying attention to the comments in the file.
61
62Start up one of the supported Common Lisp implementations in the
63directory containing this README file.
64
65Load build-abcl.lisp:
66
67    (load "build-abcl.lisp")
68
69Then do:
70
71    (build-abcl:build-abcl :clean t :full t)
72
73Wait for the build to finish and exit the host Lisp.
74
75Use abcl.bat on Windows or ./abcl on Unix to start ABCL.
76Note: abcl.bat and abcl contain absolute paths, so you'll need
77to edit them if you move things around after the build.
78
79In case of failure in the javac stage, you might try this:
80
81    (build-abcl:build-abcl :clean t :full t :batch nil)
82
83This invokes javac separately for each .java file, which avoids running
84into limitations on command line length (but is a lot slower).
85
86
87II. Ant-based build
88-------------------
89
90With Ant in your path, executing
91
92    ant -find build.xml abcl.wrapper
93
94from the directory containing this README file will create an
95executable wrapper ('abcl' under UNIX, 'abcl.bat' under Windows).
96Use this wrapper to start the ABCL Java program.
97
98
99BUGS
100====
101
102A lot of (renewed) energy has been spent to make ABCL a compliant
103and practically useable Common Lisp implementation.  Because of this,
104ABCL 0.0.11 now fails only 47 out of 21702 tests in the ANSI CL test
105suite.  Next to that, the fail count of the Maxima test suite has been
106reduced from over 1400 in 0.0.10 to little more than 600 in 0.0.11.
107
108ABCL's CLOS does not handle on-the-fly redefinition of classes
109correctly, and in any event is intolerably slow. There is no support
110for the long form of DEFINE-METHOD-COMBINATION, and certain other
111required CLOS features are also missing. Enough CLOS is there to run
112ASDF and CL-PPCRE, if you're in no hurry.
113
114There is no MOP worth mentioning.
115
116Since this is a early public release, there might be build
117problems as well as runtime bugs.
118
119Please report problems to the j-devel mailing list:
120
121    armedbear-j-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
122
123Have fun!
124
125On behalf of all ABCL development team and contributors,
126Erik Huelsmann
127October 18, 2008
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