X-Git-Url: http://repo.macrolet.net/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;ds=sidebyside;f=doc%2Fsbcl.1;h=29b55594e89a6871c0f7f686c25d24c611f179ed;hb=658b61abb1226fa07d376431277c158c677dcceb;hp=7d51edbdab47317eecbe97d4504fd482796d49e1;hpb=bc59d68844ec48359a26476e5947b38a778813b6;p=sbcl.git
diff --git a/doc/sbcl.1 b/doc/sbcl.1
index 7d51edb..29b5559 100644
--- a/doc/sbcl.1
+++ b/doc/sbcl.1
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
.TH SBCL 1 "$Date$"
.AT 3
.SH NAME
-SBCL -- "Steel Bank Common Lisp"
+SBCL -- Steel Bank Common Lisp
.SH DESCRIPTION
@@ -58,13 +58,12 @@ give you another prompt, and wait for your next input. E.g.
*
Many people like to run SBCL, like other Lisp systems, as a subprocess
-under Emacs. The Emacs "ilisp" mode provides many convenient features,
-like command line editing, tab completion, and various kinds of
-coupling between Common Lisp source files and the interactive SBCL
-subprocess, but can be somewhat fragile because it tries to be so
-clever and intimate in its interactions with the Lisp subprocess. In
-case of ilisp problems, running SBCL in the Emacs "shell" mode can a
-useful substitute.
+under Emacs. The Emacs "Slime" and "ilisp" modes provide many
+convenient features, like command line editing, tab completion, and
+various kinds of coupling between Common Lisp source files and the
+interactive SBCL subprocess, but they can be somewhat fragile wrt.
+packages and readtables, in which case SBCL in the Emacs "shell" mode
+can a useful substitute.
.SH OVERVIEW
@@ -76,7 +75,13 @@ SBCL aims for but has not completely achieved compliance with the ANSI
standard for Common Lisp. More information about this is available in
the BUGS section below.
-SBCL also includes various non-ANSI extensions.
+SBCL also includes various non-ANSI extensions, described more fully
+in the User Manual. Some of these are in the base system and others
+are "contrib" modules loaded on request using REQUIRE. For example,
+to load the SB-BSD-SOCKETS module that providces TCP/IP connectivity,
+
+ * (require 'asdf)
+ * (require 'sb-bsd-sockets)
Many Lispy extensions have been retained from CMU CL:
.TP 3
@@ -130,13 +135,17 @@ maintenance work in CMU CL. Many but not all bug fixes and
improvements have been shared between the two projects, and sometimes
the two projects disagree about what would be an improvement.
-Most extensions supported by CMU CL are not supported in SBCL,
+Most extensions supported by CMU CL have been unbundled from SBCL,
including Motif support, the Hemlock editor, search paths, the
-low-level Unix interface, the WIRE protocol, multithreading, various
-user-level macros and functions (e.g. LETF, ITERATE, MEMQ,
-REQUIRED-ARGUMENT), and many others.
+low-level Unix interface, the WIRE protocol, various user-level macros
+and functions (e.g. LETF, ITERATE, MEMQ, REQUIRED-ARGUMENT), and many
+others.
+
+SBCL inplements multithreading, but in a completely different fashion
+from CMU CL: see the User Manual for details. As of 0.8.5 this is
+considered beta-quality and must be explicitly enabled at build time.
-SBCL has retained some extensions from parent CMU CL. Many of the
+SBCL has retained some extensions from its parent CMU CL. Many of the
retained extensions are in these categories:
.TP 3
\--
@@ -170,27 +179,20 @@ called SAVE-LISP-AND-DIE instead of SAVE-LISP, and SBCL's
SAVE-LISP-AND-DIE supports fewer keyword options than CMU CL's
SAVE-LISP does.
-(Why doesn't SBCL support more extensions? Why drop all those nice
-extensions from CMU CL when the code already exists? This is a
-frequently asked question on the mailing list. In some cases, it's a
-design philosophy issue: arguably SBCL has done its job by supplying a
-stable FFI, and the right design decision is to move functionality
-derived from that, like socket support, into separate libraries,
-distributed as separate software packages by separate maintainers. In
-other cases it's a practical decision, hoping that focusing on a
-smaller number of things will let us do a better job on them. This is
-very much the case for multithreading: it's an important, valuable
-extension, but it's not easy to get right, and especially while SBCL
-is still working on basic ANSI compliance, difficult extensions aren't
-likely to be a priority.)
+(Why doesn't SBCL support more extensions natively? Why drop all
+those nice extensions from CMU CL when the code already exists? This
+is a frequently asked question on the mailing list. There are two
+principal reasons. First, it's a design philosophy issue: arguably
+SBCL has done its job by supplying a stable FFI, and the right design
+decision is to move functionality derived from that, like socket
+support, into separate libraries. Some of these are distributed with
+SBCL as "contrib" modules, others are distributed as separate software
+packages by separate maintainers. Second, it's a practical decision -
+focusing on a smaller number of things will, we hope, let us do a
+better job on them.)
.SH THE COMPILER
-SBCL is essentially a compiler-only implementation of Common Lisp. All
-nontrivial Lisp code is compiled to native machine code before being
-executed, even when the Lisp code is typed interactively at the
-"interpreter" prompt.
-
SBCL inherits from CMU CL the "Python" native code compiler. (Though
we often avoid that name in order to avoid confusion with the
scripting language also called Python.) This compiler is very clever
@@ -220,20 +222,6 @@ are used.
For more information about the compiler, see the user manual.
-.SH DOCUMENTATION
-
-Currently, the documentation for the system is
-.TP 3
-\--
-this man page
-.TP 3
-\--
-the user manual
-.TP 3
-\--
-doc strings and online help built into the SBCL executable
-.PP
-
.SH COMMAND LINE SYNTAX
Command line syntax can be considered an advanced topic; for ordinary
@@ -365,60 +353,25 @@ chance to see it.
.SH SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
-SBCL currently runs on
-X86 (Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD), Alpha (Linux, Tru64), PPC
-(Linux) and SPARC (Linux and Solaris 2.x).
-For information on other ongoing and possible ports, see the
-sbcl-devel mailing list, and/or the web site.
+SBCL currently runs on X86 (Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD), Alpha
+(Linux, Tru64), PPC (Linux, Darwin/MacOS X), SPARC (Linux and Solaris
+2.x), and MIPS (Linux). For information on other ongoing and possible
+ports, see the sbcl-devel mailing list, and/or the web site.
SBCL requires on the order of 16Mb RAM to run on X86 systems, though
all but the smallest programs would be happier with 32Mb or more.
-.SH ENVIRONMENT
-
-.TP 10n
-.BR SBCL_HOME
-If this variable is set, it overrides the default directories for
-files like "sbclrc" and "sbcl.core", so that instead of being searched
-for in e.g. /etc/, /usr/local/etc/, /usr/lib/, and /usr/local/lib/, they
-are searched for only in the directory named by SBCL_HOME. This is
-intended to support users who wish to use their own version of SBCL
-instead of the version which is currently installed as the system
-default.
-.PP
-
-.SH FILES
-
-/usr/lib/sbcl/sbcl.core and /usr/local/lib/sbcl/sbcl.core are the
-standard locations for the standard SBCL core, unless overridden by
-the SBCL_HOME variable.
-
-/etc/sbclrc and /usr/local/etc/sbclrc are the standard locations for
-system-wide SBCL initialization files, unless overridden by the
-SBCL_HOME variable or the --sysinit command line option.
-
-$HOME/.sbclrc is the standard location for a user's SBCL
-initialization file, unless overridden by the --userinit
-command line option.
-
.SH KNOWN BUGS
This section attempts to list the most serious and long-standing bugs.
For more detailed and current information on bugs, see the BUGS file
in the distribution.
-It is possible to get in deep trouble by exhausting
-memory. To plagiarize a sadly apt description of a language not
-renowned for the production of bulletproof software, "[The current
-SBCL implementation of] Common Lisp makes it harder for you to shoot
-yourself in the foot, but when you do, the entire universe explodes."
-.TP 3
-\--
-Like CMU CL, the SBCL system overcommits memory at startup. On typical
-Unix-alikes like Linux and FreeBSD, this means that if the SBCL system
-turns out to use more virtual memory than the system has available for
-it, other processes tend to be killed randomly (!).
-.PP
+It is possible to get in deep trouble by exhausting heap memory. The
+SBCL system overcommits memory at startup, so, on typical Unix-alikes
+like Linux and FreeBSD, this means that if the SBCL system turns out
+to use more virtual memory than the system has available for it, other
+processes tend to be killed randomly (!).
The compiler's handling of function return values unnecessarily
violates the "declarations are assertions" principle that it otherwise
@@ -509,8 +462,18 @@ Linux 4.5 X86 box, I get an UNBOUND-VARIABLE error."
.SH SUPPORT
Various information about SBCL is available at
-. The mailing lists there are the
-recommended place to look for support.
+. The mailing lists there are the recommended
+place to look for support.
+
+.SH ENVIRONMENT
+
+.TP 10n
+.BR SBCL_HOME
+This variable controls where files like "sbclrc", "sbcl.core", and the
+add-on "contrib" systems are searched for. If it is not set, then
+sbcl sets it from a compile-time default location which is usually
+/usr/local/lib/sbcl/ but may have been changed e.g. by a third-party
+packager.
.SH FILES
@@ -521,17 +484,39 @@ a loader, used to read sbcl.core
.TP
.I sbcl.core
dumped memory image containing most of SBCL, to be loaded by
-the 'sbcl' executable
+the 'sbcl' executable. Looked for in $SBCL_HOME,
+unless overridden by the --core option.
.TP
.I sbclrc
-optional system-wide startup script (in an etc-ish system
-configuration file directory)
+optional system-wide startup script, looked for in $SBCL_HOME/sbclrc
+then /etc/sbclrc, unless overridden by the --sysinit command line
+option.
.TP
.I .sbclrc
-optional per-user customizable startup script (in user's home directory)
+optional per-user customizable startup script (in user's home
+directory, or as specified by --userinit)
.SH AUTHORS
Dozens of people have made substantial contributions to SBCL and its
subsystems, and to the CMU CL system on which it was based, over the
years. See the CREDITS file in the distribution for more information.
+
+.SH SEE ALSO
+
+Full SBCL documentation is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If is has
+been installed, the command
+.IP
+.B info sbcl
+.PP
+should give you access to the complete manual. Depending on your
+installation it may also be available in HTML and PDF formats in eg.
+.IP
+.B /usr/local/share/doc/sbcl/
+.PP
+See the SBCL homepage
+.IP
+.B http://www.sbcl.org/
+.PP
+for more information, including directions on how to subscribe to the
+sbcl-devel and sbcl-help mailing-lists.