Re: Standardization

[Liz Allen <liz@brillig.umd.edu>]

Just a note from experience and a question for thought...

I once tried to port some code that ran fine under DEC Common Lisp
to LMI's Common Lisp and had *lots* of trouble -- in fact, I finally
had to give up.  Now the system I was porting (Drew McDermott's
deductive retrieval system, DUCK) did some interesting things and
was probably pushing some things beyond their normal limits.  Still,
there were some surprises that seemed to me like real incompatibilities.
(I could probably dig them up if someone wants to see them.)  Maybe
things have improved since then, but I can't help wondering how
standard everything really is.  Has anyone else tried porting common
lisp code from one implementation to another?  If so, how did it
go?  If not, maybe it ought to be tried...

				-Liz