Edit ``Common Lisp implementation''

Free _(Common Lisp implementation)s and their *_(features)*.

<h2>Comparison of actively developed Common Lisp implementations</h2>

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 all platforms listed may be actively supported.

Note: Some implementation builds fail to include FFI, sockets, and/or threads. Fink CLISP fails to includes threads, and MacPorts anything fails to include FFI. Aptitude lisps are severely out of date: SBCL fails on Xen, and ECL crashes during installation.

<table border="1">
<tr>
 <th>Implementation</th>
 <th>Supported Platforms</th>
 <th>Compiler</th>
 <th>Threads?</th>
 <th>Features</th>
 <th>Startup file</th>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>_(CLISP)</td>
 <td>Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Dragonfly BSD</td>
 <td>Bytecode</td>
 <td>Yes (experimental)</td>
 <td>Small image size, very efficient bignums, Callbacks,
  <a href="http://clisp.cons.org/impnotes/modules.html">modules</a></td>
 <td>~/.clisprc.lisp</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>_(CMUCL)</td>
 <td>Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, IRIX, HPUX</td>
 <td>Bytecode, Native & Block Compilation</td>
 <td>No</td>
 <td>High quality native compiler, foreign callbacks</td>
 <td>~/.cmucl-init.lisp</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>_(ECL)</td>
 <td>Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, Windows, Mac OS X, iOS</td>
 <td>Native via C, also bytecode</td>
 <td>Yes (all platforms)</td>
 <td>Executable delivery and portability. Integrates well with C programs (i.e. Embeddable, native powerful FFI).</td>
 <td>~/.eclrc</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>_(CCL)</td>
 <td>Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Android, Windows XP and later, Heroku</td>
 <td>Native</td>
 <td>Yes (all platforms)</td>
 <td>Small image size, fast compiler, convenient and powerful FFI, callbacks, executable delivery, precise gc</td>
 <td>~/ccl-init.lisp</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>_(SBCL)</td>
 <td>Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Windows (Experimental)</td>
 <td>Native</td>
 <td>Yes (x86 and x86-64 Linux only; experimental on OS X, FreeBSD, Windows)</td>
 <td>High quality native compiler; callbacks; executable delivery;</td>
 <td>~/.sbclrc</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>_(ABCL)</td>
 <td>JVM, Google App Engine</td>
 <td>JVM bytecode</td>
 <td>Yes</td>
 <td>FFI to Java, platform independence</td>
 <td>~/.abclrc</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>_(UABCL)</td>
 <td>.NET</td>
 <td>no compiler yet</td>
 <td>Yes</td>
 <td>platform independence</td>
 <td>?</td>
</tr>
<tr>
 <td>_(MKCL)</td>
 <td>Linux, Windows XP and later</td>
 <td>Native via C, bytecode-compiled interpreter</td>
 <td>Yes</td>
 <td>POSIX compliant runtime on Linux, Embeddable, FFI with callbacks.</td>
 <td>~/.mkclrc</td>
</tr>
</table>

_(Daniel Weinreb) has a current (as of February 2010) <a href="http://common-lisp.net/~dlw/LispSurvey.html">survey of Common Lisp implementations</a> that is more detailed than the chart above.

All Free Software Common Lisp implementations (some of these may not be actively developed):

/("Common Lisp implementation" :attribute :topic :match :exact)

For non-free implementations, see the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Lisp#Commercial_implementations">list on wikipedia</a>.

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

You may also use this <a href="https://gitorious.org/com-informatimago/com-informatimago/blobs/master/small-cl-pgms/what-implementation.lisp">what-implementation</a> CL program to help you determine what implementation to use. You may use it with <a href="telnet://voyager.informatimago.com:8101">telnet://voyager.informatimago.com:8101</a>.

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