From ... Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!news2.kpn.net!news.kpn.net!nslave.kpnqwest.net!nloc.kpnqwest.net!nmaster.kpnqwest.net!nreader2.kpnqwest.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Subject: Re: self-hosting gc References: <87elj5i2rf.fsf@becket.becket.net> <87zo1nvca6.fsf@becket.becket.net> <87eliy203l.fsf@becket.becket.net> Mail-Copies-To: never From: Erik Naggum Message-ID: <3224355185019060@naggum.net> Organization: Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway Lines: 26 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2002 22:12:56 GMT X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@KPNQwest.no X-Trace: nreader2.kpnqwest.net 1015366376 193.71.199.50 (Tue, 05 Mar 2002 23:12:56 MET) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2002 23:12:56 MET Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.lisp:27873 * Thomas Bushnell, BSG | Consider that if a Lisp system's GC is written in some other language | (like, say, C) then you now need two compilers to build the language. | If your only use for a C compiler is to compile your GC, then you have | really wasted a vast effort in writing one. It seems quite natural that someone who writes a Common Lisp system would write its guts in some other language first. After a while, it would be possible to bootstrap the building process in the system itself, but it would seem natural to build some lower-level Lisp that would enable a highly portable substrate to be written, and then cross-compilation would be a breeze, but it still seems fairly reasonable to start off with a different compiler or language if you want anybody to repeat the building process from scratch, not just for GC, but for the initial substrate. I remember having to compile GNU CC on SPARC with the SunOS-supplied C compiler and then with the GNU CC thus built, in order to arrive at a "native build" and that when Sun stopped shipping compilers with their application-only operating system, someone was nice enough to make binaries available for the rest of the world. Why is GC so special in your view? /// -- In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none. In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.