CLISP(1)

NAME
clisp - Common Lisp language interpreter and compiler

SYNOPSIS
clisp [ -h ] [ -m memsize ] [ -M memfile ] [ -L language ] [ -q ] [ -I ] [ -i initfile ... ] [ -c [ -l ] lispfile ... ] [ -x expression ]

DESCRIPTION
Invokes the common lisp interpreter and compiler. Invoked without arguments, executes a read-eval-print loop, in which expressions are in turn read from standard input, evaluated by the lisp interpreter, and their results output to standard output. Invoked with -c, the specified lisp files are compiled to a bytecode that can be executed more efficiently.

OPTIONS

-h  Displays a help message on how to use clisp.

-m memsize
    Sets the amount of memory clisp tries to grab on startup. The amount may be given as nnnnnnn (measured in bytes), nnnnK or nnnnKB (measured in kilobytes) or nM or nMB (measured in megabytes). Default is 2 megabytes. The argument is constrained between 100 KB and 16 MB. -- This version of clisp allocates memory dynamically. memsize is essentially ignored.

-M memfile
    Specifies the initial memory image. This must be a memory dump produced by the saveinitmem function.

-L language
    Specifies the language clisp uses to communicate with the user. This may be english, deutsch, francais.

-q  Quiet: clisp displays no banner at startup and no good-bye message when quitting.

-I  ILISP friendly: clisp interacts in a way that ILISP (a popular Emacs LISP interface) can deal with. Currently the only effect of this is that unnecessary prompts are not suppressed.

-i initfile ...
    Specifies initialization files to be loaded at startup. These should be lisp files (source or compiled).

-c lispfile ...
    Compiles the specified lispfiles to bytecode. The compiled files can then be loaded instead of the sources to gain efficiency.

-l  A bytecode listing of the files being compiled will be produced. Useful only for debugging purposes.

-x expressions
    Executes a series of arbitrary expressions instead of a read-eval-print loop. The values of the expressions will be output to standard output. Due to the argument processing done by the shell, the expressions must be enclosed in single quotes, and double quotes and backslashes must be preceded by backslashes.

@optionfile
    substitutes the contents of optionfile as arguments. Each line of optionfile is treated as a separate argument to clisp.

REFERENCE
The language implemented conforms to
          Guy L. Steele Jr.: Common Lisp - The Language.
          Digital Press. 1st edition 1984, 465 pages.
          ("CLtL1" for short)
and to the older parts of
          Guy L. Steele Jr.: Common Lisp - The Language.
          Digital Press. 2nd edition 1990, 1032 pages.
          ("CLtL2" for short)

USE

help
    to get some on-line help.

(apropos name)
    lists the symbols relating to name.

(exit) or (quit) or (bye)
    to quit clisp.

EOF (Ctrl-Z)
    to leave the current read-eval-print loop.

arrow keys
    for editing and viewing the input history.

Tab key
    to complete the symbol's name you are just typing.

FILES

lisp.exe
    main executable

lispinit.mem
    initial memory image

config.lsp
    site-dependent configuration

*.lsp
    lisp source

*.fas
    lisp code, compiled by clisp

*.lib
    lisp source library information, generated and used by the clisp compiler

ENVIRONMENT

CLISP_LANGUAGE
    specifies the language clisp uses to communicate with the user. The value may be english, deutsch, francais and defaults to english. The -L option can be used to override this environment variable.

COMSPEC (DOS, OS/2 implementations only)
    is used to find the command interpreter called by the function shell.

TERM
    specifies the terminal emulation clisp relies on. If you have ANSI.SYS loaded, possible values are ansi, ansi-color-2, ansi-color-3 and mono.

TERMCAP
    should be set to the slashified file name of the terminal capabilities database termcap.dat.

SEE ALSO
cmulisp(1), emacs(1).

BUGS

The function inspect is not implemented.

Only very few extensions from CLtL2 are supported.

No on-line documentation beyond apropos and describe is available.

Stack overflow aborts the program ungracefully, with a register dump.

Pressing Control-C may not interrupt clisp in every situation.

Calling the function EXECUTE on batch files crashes the machine.

PROJECTS

Writing on-line documentation.

Building a foreign function interface (ability to call C code directly).

Write inspect.

Enhance the compiler such that it can inline local functions.

Specify a portable set of window and graphics operations.

AUTHORS
Bruno Haible <haible@ma2s2.mathematik.uni-karlsruhe.de> and Michael Stoll.