X-Git-Url: http://repo.macrolet.net/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fintro.sgml;h=cc11eb33ebcf7ffb168d0279a2b4e13886d471f6;hb=9f10bc102adce15a820027777a03e49a7b7623da;hp=7c7fbcf6bc0b1e21ef706e739467e18749734a98;hpb=a8cd89bbf4c7a4a5316ad8ac1c758c4eaef094cd;p=sbcl.git diff --git a/doc/intro.sgml b/doc/intro.sgml index 7c7fbcf..cc11eb3 100644 --- a/doc/intro.sgml +++ b/doc/intro.sgml @@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ specific to &SBCL;, not on behavior which is common to all implementations of &ANSI; &CommonLisp;. -Where To Go For More Information on &CommonLisp; in General +Where To Go For More Information about &CommonLisp; in General Regardless of your ability level, two very useful resources for working with any implementation of @@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ but need to learn about Lisp, three books stand out. -Where To Go For More Information On &SBCL; +Where To Go For More Information About &SBCL; Before you read this user manual, you should probably read two other things. @@ -107,9 +107,9 @@ known bugs, known performance problems, and missing extensions are likely to be fixed, tuned, or added. &SBCL; is descended from &CMUCL;, which is itself descended from -Spice Lisp. Early implementations for the Mach operating system on the -IBM RT, back in the 1980s. Design decisions from that time are still -reflected in the current implementation: +Spice Lisp, including early implementations for the Mach operating +system on the IBM RT, back in the 1980s. Design decisions from that +time are still reflected in the current implementation: The system expects to be loaded into a fixed-at-compile-time location in virtual memory, and also expects @@ -122,7 +122,8 @@ reflected in the current implementation: A word is a 32-bit quantity. The system has been ported to many processor architectures without altering this basic principle. Some hacks allow the system to run on the Alpha - chip (a 64-bit architecture) but the assumption that a word is + chip (a 64-bit architecture) but even there 32-bit words are + used. The assumption that a word is 32 bits wide is implicit in hundreds of places in the system. The system is implemented as a C program which is @@ -160,8 +161,8 @@ debugging) do not work particularly well there. &SBCL; should be able to improve in these areas (and has already improved in some other areas), but it takes a while. -The &SBCL; GC, like the GC on the X86 port of &CMUCL;, is -conservative. This means that it doesn't maintain a +On the x86, &SBCL; like the X86 port of &CMUCL;, uses a +conservative GC. This means that it doesn't maintain a strict separation between tagged and untagged data, instead treating some untagged data (e.g. raw floating point numbers) as possibly-tagged data and so not collecting any Lisp objects that they @@ -182,7 +183,7 @@ running system with new versions. This quasi-build procedure can cause various bizarre bootstrapping hangups, especially when a major change is made to the system. It also makes the connection between the current source code and the current executable more tenuous than in -any other software system I'm aware of -- it's easy to accidentally +other software systems -- it's easy to accidentally build a &CMUCL; system containing characteristics not reflected in the current version of the source code.