Glossary of terms used in Allegro CL documentation

executable: the file that is initiated to start Allegro CL or an Allegro CL application. On Windows, this file has type exe. On UNIX, it has no type. Whatever the executable is named, when started, it looks for a file with the same name in the same directory with type dxl (thus mlisp or mlisp.exe will look for mlisp.dxl). There are two different executables supplied: one using 8-bit characters (for example mlisp8 or mlisp8.exe) and one using 16-bit characters (for example mlisp or mlisp.exe). Copies of these files are also provided, associated with additional dxl files (including alisp or alisp.exe). See Allegro CL Executables in startup.htm.

.clinit.cl and clinit.cl files: these are initialization files, one of which is typically loaded when Allegro CL starts up. See Initialization and the sys:siteinit.cl and [.]clinit.cl files in startup.htm.

consing: increasing (usually temporarily) the amount of data in the Lisp heap. The term comes from the function cons, which creates a new list or listlike entity. The data usually quickly becomes garbage, and is removed from the system by the garbage collector. It is usually best to avoid consing because creation of unneeded data results in overlarge programs and wasted time. (Thus, for example, if you can arrange, using declarations and compiling with appropriate optimization values, for temporary floating-point values to be allocated on the stack rather than having floating-point objects created, speed will be enhanced and space usage reduced. See Optimizing for fast floating-point operations in compiling.htm for information on reducing consing of temporary floating-point values. Note that eliminating consing of floats is only one of many ways that overall consing can be reduced.

custom.cl: this file in the Allegro directory is loaded when an image is built using build-lisp-image (or generate-application). It allows build-time customizations. See Use of custom.cl in building-images.htm.

custom.cl, as delivered, contains commented material and certain forms setting values to the defaults used in previous versions of Allegro CL, preceded by #+ignore so they will not be read unless the #+ignore is removed. (See Features present or missing from *features* in Allegro CL in implementation.htm for information on #+ignore.)

fasl or fasl file: a file containing compiled Lisp code, written, for example, by compile-file. `fasl' stands for FASt Loading.

lisp.h file: a file containing C structure definitions of Lisp objects. It is located in the misc/ subdirectory of the distribution.

pll file: the `pure lisp library' file containing constant data (such as strings and code vectors) to be used by Allegro CL when running. The name refers to the file type. Images can be built to use a pll file or not. See Creating and using pll files in miscellaneous.htm.

sys:siteinit.cl: this file in the Allegro directory is a sitewide initialization file. It is typically loaded when Allegro CL is started. See Initialization and the sys:siteinit.cl and [.]clinit.cl files in startup.htm.

true: any Lisp value that is not nil is said to be true. Generally, whenever a non-nil value is called for, any Lisp object other than nil will suffice. However, in some cases t means something different than other non-nil values.

Copyright (c) 1998-2002, Franz Inc. Oakland, CA., USA. All rights reserved.
Documentation for Allegro CL version 6.2. This page was not revised from the 6.1 page.
Created 2002.2.26.