1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
|
<html><head>
<title>Common Lisp</title>
<style type="text/css">
.example {
color: #000000;
background-color: #F5F5F5;
padding: 8px;
border: #808080;
border-style: solid;
border-width: 1px;
width:auto;
}
.button {
color: #000000;
background-color: #F5F5F5;
padding-top: 1px;
padding-bottom: 1px;
padding-left: 4px;
padding-right: 8px;
border: #808080;
border-style: solid;
border-width: 1px;
white-space: pre;
}
.box {
color: #000000;
padding-top: 4px;
padding-bottom: 4px;
padding-left: 16px;
padding-right: 16px;
border: #808080;
border-style: solid;
border-width: 1px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<a href="../start.htm">Nyquist / XLISP 2.0</a> -
<a href="../manual/contents.htm">Contents</a> |
<a href="../tutorials/tutorials.htm">Tutorials</a> |
<a href="examples.htm">Examples</a> |
<a href="../reference/reference-index.htm">Reference</a>
<hr>
<h1>Where is the Nyquist Common Lisp Library?</h1>
<hr>
<p>Short answer - nowhere.</p>
<p>Rationale:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>XLISP is a very simple Lisp. Many of the XLISP functions are just simple
wrappers around the underlying <nobr>C functions</nobr>. This makes XLISP,
as an interpreted language, run with reasonable speed. <nobr>The main</nobr>
advantage of XLISP over <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> is that XLISP is much
smaller and therefore much easier to learn.</p></li>
<li><p>The main trick of Nyquist is to use XLISP only in the initial setup
phase, where the Lisp code is parsed, to <nobr>set-up</nobr> the
<nobr>low-level</nobr> sound sample functions, written <nobr>in C</nobr>,
not in Lisp.</p>
<p><nobr>The Nyquist</nobr> <nobr>low-level</nobr> '<nobr>snd-...</nobr>'
functions only look like Lisp functions, but they are direct wrappers around
<nobr>C functions</nobr> and behave like that. They do not provide type
contagion, instead they expect a correct number of arguments, given in
correct order with correct data types, and if not given exactly as expected,
chances are good that Nyquist will crash.</p>
<p><nobr>In Nyquist</nobr>, <nobr>XLISP [slow]</nobr> is used to make sure
that the <nobr>low-level</nobr> functions will be given the correct
arguments, while the <nobr>low-level</nobr> sound sample functions after the
initial setup phase will run in <nobr>high-speed C</nobr>, and not in Lisp
anymore.</nobr></p></li>
</ol>
<p>Because the Nyquist <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> functions are running in
interpreted XLISP, they run slower than the <nobr>built-in</nobr> XLISP
functions. Because many <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> functions do extensive
parsing and/or type checking on their arguments, they run many times
slower than XLISP. That's why overloading Nyquist with an extensive
<nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> layer makes not much sense.</p>
<p><nobr> <a href="#top">Back to top</a></nobr></p>
<a name=""></a>
<hr>
<h2>But why did you write so many Common Lisp functions?</h2>
<hr>
<p>I usually work with <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> for prototyping, so if I'm
porting code from <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> to Nyquist:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I first copy the <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> code together with the
respective Nyquist <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> functions from screen into a
Nyquist lisp file to see if the <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> code works with
Nyquist <nobr>at all</nobr>. Many of the Nyquist <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr>
functions have argument tests to help with error tracking.</p></li>
<li><p>When the <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> code works with Nyquist I start to
strip out everything I don't need for the particular problem at hand, making
the Nyquist code run faster. Because this second step is highly depending on
the particular problem at hand, there probably never will be a general
solution for this.</p></li>
</ol>
<p><div class="box">
<p>I have tried to keep the functions as <nobr>self-contained</nobr> as
possible, any dependencies to <nobr>non-Nyquist</nobr> functions are noted
directly below the code.</p>
</div></p>
<p>There are many XLISP functions that behave exactly like their
<nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> counterparts, so I haven't written extra functions
for them.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>If you already know <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> then the Nyquist
<nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> functions may help to understand how XLISP
works.</p></li>
<li><p>If you still don't know <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> and maybe one day
you decide to learn more <nobr>about it</nobr>, then the Nyquist
<nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> functions may save you from learning everything
double.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>In either case you can use the Nyquist <nobr>Common Lisp</nobr> functions
as a <nobr>grab-bag</nobr> for your own functions.</p>
<p><nobr> <a href="#top">Back to top</a></nobr></p>
<hr>
<a href="../start.htm">Nyquist / XLISP 2.0</a> -
<a href="../manual/contents.htm">Contents</a> |
<a href="../tutorials/tutorials.htm">Tutorials</a> |
<a href="examples.htm">Examples</a> |
<a href="../reference/reference-index.htm">Reference</a>
</body></html>
|
