This document applies to Allegro CL 5.0 and 5.0.1 (see information on old FAQs for availability of older Allegro CL FAQs). This is a list of frequently asked questions on Allegro Common Lisp (ACL). ACL 5.0 runs on UNIX (including Linux), Windows 95/98 and Windows NT 4.0 (Intel). Allegro CL 5.0.1 runs also on UNIX FreeBSD and Windows on DEC (now part of Compaq) machines that are not Intel based. Please read this document before sending mail to bugs@franz.com or allegro-cl@cs.berkeley.edu. Periodically, also, items from this list will be incorporated into our documentation (and dropped from here).
Unlike earlier versions of the ACL FAQ, this version comprises a number of HTML files. Each topic has it own file containing all questions specifically related to that topic.
Click here if you want to download the FAQ. (We recommend that you look at the FAQ on the Franz Inc. website since it is always the most up to date, while a downloaded FAQ may go out of date. The title above -- Allegro CL 5.0/5.0.1 Frequently Asked Questions with Answers -- is a link to the FAQ on the Franz Inc. website, useful if you are looking at a downloaded version and want to see the latest version.)
A copy of the current ACL documentation (HTML files only, not the several Windows Help files such as cgide.hlp) is also on our website (see http://www.franz.com/support/docs/5.0/readme.htm and http://www.franz.com/support/docs/5.0/doc/cl/introduction.htm) and there are links from FAQ pages to that documentation. Note that the ACL HTML documentation (and the Windows Help files) will be periodically updated to correct errors and to provide new information based on customer questions. This document is linked to the latest update of the documentation (the first update is scheduled for early November, 1998). After updates are available, unless you update the Allegro CL documentation by downloading the update version, the information you see on a page referred to by a FAQ document may be different from the corresponding page of your version of the ACL documentation. Instructions for updating the documentation will be provided when the first update is available.
Your comments, additions and fixes to this list are welcome: please send them to bugs@franz.com.
Each numbered heading N.M is a link to a separate HTML file in the faq-entries/ subdirectory and names faqN-M.htm (e.g. the file faq-entries/faq1-1.htm contains answers to the question about 1.1 ACL current version info).
1.2. ACL-related communication
#Q 1.2-1) How should I report bugs?
#Q 1.2-2) dribble-bug output seems to lag behind Lisp I/O.
#Q 1.2-3) Sometimes CL output is not logged in the dribble-bug file. What do I do about this?
#Q 1.2-4) Is there a mailing list for Allegro CL? How do I sign up?
#Q 1.3-1) Is there a public patch directory you maintain for incremental patches to ACL? If so, how do I get to it?
#Q 1.3-2) What is the IP address of ftp.franz.com?
#Q 1.3-3: Why are there patches on the ftp site with date stamps that are still in the future?
#Q 1.4-1) What is the relationship between this FAQ and ACL documentation?
#Q 1.4-2) Is the ACL documentation available on-line?
Q 1.5-1) [Windows only] Why does setup.exe think I'm in Japan, but I'm not?
Q 2.1-1: Can shared libraries linked with a Solaris thread library be loaded into Allegro CL 5.0 ?
2.2. SGI
[no entries at this time]
2.3. IBM RS6000
[no entries at this time]
2.4. HP
[no entries at this time]
2.5. DEC
[no entries at this time]
#Q 2.6-1) The reported file position on Windows seems wrong. Why?
#Q 2.6-2) How do I get the functionality of the ~/time/ and ~/date/ format directives available in 3.0.2 in 5.0?
#Q 2.6-3) Why can't I use `dir' with run-shell-command?
#Q 2.6-4) How do I get the functionality of the 3.0.2 function allegro:read-lisp-line?
#Q 2.6-5) update.bat (the program for creating patched images) doesn't work on Windows 98. Why not?
#Q 2.6-6) Can I deliver the directory created by generate-application?
#Q 2.6-7) How do I control the stack size on Windows?
2.7 Linux
[no entries at this time]
#Q 3.1-1) I'm left with running Lisp processes after I exit my Emacs/xterm. What do I do to avoid this?
#Q 3.1-2) Why doesn't make-pathname merge the given :directory component with the directory component in :defaults argument?
#Q 3.1.3) I am getting stack overflows and occasional Lisp failure when I sort on large arrays. Why and what can I do?
#Q 3-1.4) I have set the stack cushion to a resonable value, but the soft stack limit is not being detected, and I get a lisp death instead. Why is that?
3.2. Garbage collector
No entries at this time.
#Q 3.3-1) Why do boolean specifications not work as arguments in ff calls?
3.4: Time issues in Allegro CL
No entries at this time.
3.5: Lisp as a shared library (or DLL)
Q 3.5-1: How do I make Lisp a DLL on Windows?
Q 3.5-2: How do I make a Lisp based shared library on the Unix ACL 5.0 versions?
3.6: Allegro CL and cl-http
This item is being prepared. No information is
available yet.
Q 3.9.1) Sometimes Allegro CL, particularly large images, run out of memory or fail totally with a bus error or a segv. Why might this be happening?
Q 3.9-2) How is heap placement determined and what can go wrong?
Q 3.9-3) What do I need to know about heap placement and how do I figure out the sizes and placements of my Lisp and C heaps, especially when I will be shipping my large application to my customers who have many various machine configurations?
Q 3.9-4) How does Lisp start up, in terms of shared-library linking and loading?
Q 3.9-5) What is the "Old Sun4" problem?
Q 3.9-6) I downloaded the "heap placement patch" on my Sparc, and now I get a big warning message whenever I start my Lisp. Why is this?
Q 3.9-7) What would happen if I ignore the warning message and do not rebuild the .dxl?
Q 3.9-8) How do I rebuild my images so they contain the heap-placement-patch?
#Q 4.1-1) How do I print to the emacs-lisp interface created *common-lisp* buffer when I run my application in its own Lisp image?
#Q 4.1-2) Can I connect a UNIX emacs to a Windows Lisp?
#Q 4.1-3) Can I run Emacs on Windows and Lisp on UNIX?
#Q 4.1-4) Why doesn't the emacs-lisp interface startup when I don't have a network connection?
4.2. Lisp-Editor Protocol (LEP)
#Q 4.2-1) How can I open a stream to an emacs buffer?
#Q 4.2-2) How can another stream be used for background output instead of creating the *background-interaction* buffer?
#Q 4.2-3) How can arbitrary elisp code be run from lisp?
#Q 4.2-4) Is there a way to programmatically determine if the emacs-lisp interface connect has been established?
#Q 4.2-5) How can I tell if lep had a problem?
#Q 4.3-1) How do I provide scrollable popup menus in Allegro CLIM 2.x?
#Q 4.3-2) Why do I need an XNLSPATH environment variable?
#Q 4.3-3) What should I do to avoid getting palette-full error messages?
#Q 4.3-4) Why can't I get the :scroll-bar option to the list-pane gadget to work?
4.4. Common Graphics and the Integrated Development Environment [Windows only]
#Q 4.4-1) Do I need the project system? I already have a way of organizing (eg, using tools such as defsystem) my source files for compiling and loading. Is there any reason for me to switch to using the project system?
#Q 4.4-2) Why can't I create Common Graphics windows from my *common-lisp* buffer in Emacs?
#Q 4.4-3) How do I not save prefs.cl when I exit the ide?
#Q 4.3-4) Sometimes when a run my project, I get mysterious redefinition warnings. Why and should I worry about them?
4.5. Runtime
[no entries at this time]
4.6 Allegro CL LITE
(The LITE version is a restricted version of Allegro CL available at no cost. See the
Franz Inc. home page (www.franz.com) for more information.)
Q 4.6-1: Why can't I load patches into a lite lisp-only image?
Q 4.6-2: How do I use the code/ patches in ACL Lite?
4.7 OLE [Windows only]
#Q 4.7-1 Why does OLE sample06 fail?
Q 4.8-1) How do I set up an excel spreadsheet for use with AODBC?
Q 4.9-1) Why does composer:start-composer sometimes warn that "fcntl failed"?
You can download the entire FAQ (as a Windows zip file ftp://ftp.franz.com/pub/acl5/acl50faq.zip or a UNIX compressed tar file ftp://ftp.franz.com/pub/acl5/acl50faq.tar.gz) but this is not recommended because this FAQ will be updated from time to time and so a downloaded version will quickly go out of date. We instead recommend you bookmark this page on our website. If you download the FAQ, place it in <Allegro directory>/doc/cl/faq/ (creating the faq/ subdirectory if necessary) for links to work with your copy of the ACL documentation.
$Revision: 1.1.2.31 $
© Copyright 1998, Franz Inc., Berkeley, CA. All rights reserved.