Test Suite availability

[wile@vaxa.isi.edu]

A Common Lisp Validation Suite has been assembled here at ISI by Richard
Berman.  He essentially developed a test driver and has converted
portions of the suites of some of the vendors to his format.  The suite
contains only a small fraction of the tests he has received, but it is a
start for anyone responsible for quality assurance of CL
implementations. 

Unfortunately for us, Richard resigned recently (to go off and become a
recording star and/or AI in music guru), so there will be little
additional support or development until a replacement for him is found.

Although several of you are aware of the existence of this suite, we
have been told that many interested parties were not; hence, this
message.  To access the suite, ftp to venera.isi.edu logging in as
anonymous.  Please respond with your name and affiliation as the
password.  The two directories of interest are: /usr/ftp/Valid-Code/*.*
and /usr/ftp/Valid-Tests/*.*.  (Capitalization is necessary.)  The file
README.NOW contains the information necessary to understand how to
invoke the test suite and what files to transfer to your machine.
Apparently around 400 tests are available now.  

We have no way to monitor the activity on the files, except with the ftp
log of your anonymous password.  We would very much appreciate hearing
about any successes, problems, or suggestions (perhaps as to which
remaining tests to convert first) you have.  Send mail to
WILE@VAXA.ISI.EDU for now.  There is a mailing list for the validation
group--named CL-VALIDATION.  You get onto it by mailing to
RPG@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU.