RE: [Axiom-developer] Aldor translations

[Page, Bill]

On July 27, 2006 11:37 AM C Y wrote:
> 
> Axiom's core is currently based on Lisp, and I personally 
> think this is a Good Thing.

I agree. I do not see any reason to want to replace the
current run-time environment of Axiom with anything else.
Axiom's algebra library depends strongly on the 
S-expressions and other lisp data structures plus a
large number of operations that are provided very
naturally by Lisp, e.g. infinite precision Integers.

> If we output Aldor to something other than Lisp,

You mean if we use a different run-time environment?

When used inside Axiom (and as an option when running
stand alone) Aldor does generate Lisp as the intermediate
"object" code. In Axiom this is essential in order to
integrate with the rest of the Axiom library and the
interpreter. But even in Axiom the intermediate Lisp
code is subsequently converted to C and compiled into
actual machine object files.

When Aldor is run stand alone, one can opt to generate
C code directly for a much reduced "lisp-like" run-time
environment also written in C. It is (more or less) just
like a cut down mini-version of Lisp. In the distant
future it is conceivable that Axiom could be based on
this reduced C-based run-time environment rather than a
full Lisp. But personally I do not see many advantages to
attempting to do this other than the goal of overall
simplicity.

> ... 
> Am I missing something?
> 

Perhaps you are assuming something that is not the case?
:)

Regards,
Bill Page.