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> Allegro CL or Franz Lisp.

Same thing. Franz is the company. Allegro Lisp is the product. Like "Apple Macintosh computer."

> But why is it 'high performant' compared to other implementations? Like say CMU CL(now SBCL).

Somewhat better compiler, but mainly lots of extra features (better debugging, graphics, better libraries).

> why would one use Clozure CL instead of SBCL?

I use CCL because 1) I like the IDE and 2) its compiler is fast so you can always compile everything essentially for free. In other CLs you have to choose between running in compiled or interpreted mode, and that can sometimes cause problems. CCL doesn't have an interpreter at all. It always compiles everything and that makes it easier to use.



I'm pretty sure SBCL compiles everything too. From "Compiler-only Implementation," section 2.3.3 (page 14) of the user manual (http://sbcl.org/manual/sbcl.pdf):

SBCL is essentially a compiler-only implementation of Common Lisp. That is, for all but a few special cases, eval creates a lambda expression, calls compile on the lambda expression to create a compiled function, and then calls funcall on the resulting function object. A more traditional interpreter is also available on default builds; it is usually only called internally. This is explicitly allowed by the ANSI standard, but leads to some oddities; e.g. at default settings, functionp and compiled-function-p are equivalent, and they collapse into the same function when SBCL is built without the interpreter.


It does by default, though technically, it has an interpreter available if you need it - see http://www.sbcl.org/manual/#Interpreter.


Actually Franz Lisp is a pre-common lisp used primarily with BSD on vaxen.

http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/maclisp_fa...


... and M68k Sun workstations, and the CCI Tahoe, which was a late-80s Vax clone with about 6x the speed. (I did the port to the Tahoe as an undergraduate.)


>I use CCL because 1) I like the IDE and 2) its compiler is fast so you can always compile everything essentially for free.

Just to add to the above, I like CCL because it gives nice compiler messages --sometimes it warns me about things SBCL won't notice.


What resources would you recommend one read to understand more about debugging facilities in Common Lisp?


Debugging facilities are not standardized so you'd need to consult the documentation for whatever implementation you are using. e.g.:

https://franz.com/support/documentation/10.1/doc/debugging.h...

http://www.sbcl.org/manual/#Debugger


In [Successful Lisp, how to understand and use CL](http://www.communitypicks.com/r/lisp/s/17592186045679-succes...) there is a chapter on debugging. Book's site, free dl: https://successful-lisp.blogspot.com

Also, it may not be necessary to master the most complicated machinery: compiling function by function gives lots of hints, and the very nice [log4cl](https://github.com/sharplispers/log4cl/) is handy.


I have found this series of articles to be very helpful:

http://malisper.me/debugging-lisp-part-1-recompilation/


See the LispWorks IDE user guide: http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/index.html




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