Common Lisp implementation

Free Common Lisp implementations and their *features*.

amphipoLISP - amphipoLISP is a LISP dialect written in Java which is interpreted or compiled to Java bytecode
Armed Bear Lisp - Armed Bear Common Lisp is a Common Lisp implementation that runs on a Java Virtual Machine
CLiCC - CLiCC is a Common Lisp to C Compiler
clisp - CLISP is a Common Lisp implementation by Bruno Haible of Karlsruhe University and Michael Stoll of Munich University, both in Germany
Clojure - "Clojure is a dialect of Lisp, and shares with Lisp the code-as-data philosophy and a powerful macro system
Clozure - Clozure is the new name for OpenMCL
CMUCL - CMUCL is a high-performance, free (mostly Public Domain) Common Lisp implementation that aims towards ANSI compatibility and runs on a number of Unix platforms - including Linux/ix86, Linux/Alpha,
Corman Lisp - Corman Lisp is a non-free Common Lisp implementation and development environment for Microsoft Windows operating systems running on Intel platforms
ECL - ECL, a member of the KCL Family, is a Common Lisp implementation initially developed by Giuseppe Attardi and currently maintained by
ECL-Spain - ECL-Spain, a member of the KCL Family, is a Common Lisp implementation forked from ECL
emacs-cl - emacs-cl, Emacs Common Lisp is a Common Lisp implementation written in Emacs Lisp
GCL - GNU Common Lisp (GCL) is a Common Lisp implementation of the KCL Family that uses gcc to compile Lisp into native binaries
KCL Family - The KCL Family is a family of Common Lisp implementations originated from the influential KCL
Movitz - Movitz is a Common Lisp implementation that targets the x86 PC architecture "on-the-metal"
OpenMCL - OpenMCL is a Common Lisp implementation
Poplog - Poplog is a multi-language programming system which includes its own Common Lisp implementation, as well as Standard ML, Prolog, and Pop-11
PowerLisp - PowerLisp is a free Common Lisp implementation for the Macintosh
Sacla - A partial (as of 2004) Common Lisp implementation written in Common Lisp by Yuji Minejima, under a BSD style license
SBCL - Steel Bank Common Lisp is an open source / free software Common Lisp implementation
ThinLisp - ThinLisp is a Common Lisp implementation that compiles to very efficient C code
WCL - WCL is a Common Lisp implementation that compiles to C code
webframeworkmatrix - th{text-transform:none;}
XCL - XCL is a Common lisp implementation licensed under GPL

Partial comparison table

All the implementations below provide an FFI and sockets interface. Callbacks mean in this context that the FFI is capable of passing lisp-functions as callbacks to foreign functions. The startup file is loaded when the Lisp starts (not sure whether this is the best place, but a question came up recently on comp.lang.lisp)

Implementation	Supported Platforms	ANSI Compliance	Compiler	Features	Startup file
CLISP	Windows, Mac, Most *nixes	Good	Bytecode	Small image size, very efficient bignums, Callbacks, modules	~/.clisprc.lisp
CMUCL	Most *nixes	Good	Bytecode, Native & Block Compilation	High quality native compiler, Callbacks	~/.cmucl-init.lisp
ECL	Microsoft Windows, most Un*x variants, Mac OSX	?	Bytecode, native via C	Executable delivery. Integrates well with C programs (i.e. Embeddable).	~/.eclrc
GCL	Windows, Most *nixes	?	Native via C	?	~/.gclrc.lisp
OpenMCL	Mac, Linux/PPC	Good	Native	Small image size, callbacks	~/openmcl-init.lisp
SBCL	Most *nixes, MacOS X (Darwin), Windows (Experimental)	Good	Native	High quality native compiler; callbacks; executable delivery; native threads on x64 and x86-64 for Linux, Solaris 10, and OS X (experimental)	~/.sbclrc
ABCL	Most *nixes, MacOS X (Darwin), Windows	Good, except for some CLOS parts	JVM bytecode	FFI to Java, multithreading, platform independence	~/.abclrc
emacs-cl	emacs	Lacks among other things, CLOS and pretty printing.	?	FFI with underlying emacs	?

For non-free implementations, see [new] ALU wiki, Implementation, or [old] http://www.alu.org/table/systems.htm#vendor. The old link is inacessible on 2007-02-20.

If performance is an important criterion for you, you might be interested in the Performance Benchmarks page.

Pages in this topic: amphipoLISP Armed Bear Lisp CLiCC clisp Clojure Clozure CMUCL Corman Lisp ECL ECL-Spain emacs-cl GCL KCL Family Movitz OpenMCL Poplog PowerLisp Sacla SBCL ThinLisp WCL webframeworkmatrix XCL

Also linked from: araneida Benchmarks Changes in June 2000 cl-jointgen compatibility layers Datoura detachtty ffi Garnet index Installing OpenMCL on Mac OS X KR Linux Lisp Lisp newbie LispWorks LLVM MacOS X Marko Kocic MCL NaCL NetBSD newLisp OpenGL Bindings Performance Benchmarks Performance Benchmarks2 Planet of the Feebs Practical Lisp Programming Suggested Programming Projects thread WikiNode Wish List X-Chat Common Lisp Plugin

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