This document applies to Allegro CL 8.0 (see information on old FAQs for availability of older Allegro CL FAQs). This is a list of frequently asked questions on Allegro Common Lisp (ACL) 8.0. Allegro CL 8.0 runs on various UNIX platforms (including Linux and FreeBSD), Windows NT-based operating systems, Mac OS X, and on MkLinux and linuxppc on PowerPC based machines. Please read this document before sending mail reporting problems to [email protected]. Periodically, also, some items from this list will be incorporated into our documentation (and dropped from here). Other items stay in the FAQ more or less permanently.
See the document changes.htm, which lists recent modifications.
This FAQ comprises a number of HTML files. Each topic has it own file containing all questions specifically related to that topic.
This FAQ is regularly updated. The title at the top is usually linked to the latest version of the 8.0 FAQ on the Franz Inc. web site (www.franz.com). If you are viewing a downloaded version of this FAQ, clicking on the title will display the absolutely latest version.
See www.franz.com/support/documentation for information on downloading the FAQ (though we recommend looking at the FAQ on the Franz Inc. website, linked by the title of the document, since it is always the most up-to-date).
A copy of the current ACL documentation is also on our website. (See https://franz.com/support/documentation/8.0/doc/introduction.htm, which is a link to the documentation introduction and overview, for the current 8.0 documentation. Note that the ACL HTML documentation will be periodically updated to correct errors and to provide new information based on customer questions. This document is linked to the latest update of the documentation. After updates are available, unless you update the Allegro CL documentation by downloading the updated version, the information you see on a page referred to by a FAQ document may be different from the corresponding page of your version of the ACL documentation. Instructions for updating the documentation are provided on the www.franz.com/support/documentation page.
Your comments, additions and fixes to this list are welcome: please send them to [email protected].
Each numbered heading N.M is a link to a separate HTML file named faqN-M.htm (e.g. the file faq1-1.htm contains answers to the question about 1.1 ACL current version info). Each entry is followed by the date that it was created or last significantly modified. If the modification simply updated the version number, the modification date is not changed (so if you are familiar with the entry from a previous release, you will not find new information in the entry).
Q1.1-1) What is the current version of ACL? (Last modified 10/31/01)
1.2. ACL-related communication
Q 1.2-1) How should I report bugs? (Created or last modified 11/14/00)
Q 1.2-2) dribble-bug output seems to lag behind Lisp I/O. (Created or last modified 11/14/00)
Q 1.2-3) Sometimes CL output is not logged in the dribble-bug file. What do I do about this? (Created or last modified 11/30/00)
Q 1.2-4) Is there a mailing list for Allegro CL? How do I sign up? (Created or last modified 10/7/01)
Q 1.3-1) Is there a public patch directory you maintain for incremental patches to ACL? If so, how do I get to it? (Last modified 11/13/01)
Q 1.3-3) Why are there patches on the ftp site with date stamps that are still in the future? (Except for version info, last modified 9/1/99)
Q 1.3-5) Is there a list of available patches for ACL 8.0? (Except for version info, last modified on 11/4/99)
Q 1.4-1) What is the relationship between this FAQ and ACL documentation? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 1.4-2) Is the ACL documentation available on-line? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 1-4.3) Is the ACL documentation updated between releases, and if so, where can I get the update? (Last modified 11/13/01)
Q 1.5-1) [Windows only] How do I clean out a previous installation if I deleted the files without using the proper uninstall method? (Last modified 11/14/01)
Q 1.5-2) [Windows only] If I run cleanreg.exe (see Q 1.5-2) before installing ACL 8.0, can I continue to use ACL 7.0? (Except for version info, created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 1.6-1) How do I install the License File into Allegro CL? (Updated 2/28/06)
Q 1.6-2) I have misplaced the email telling me the URL from which I can download your license? (Created 2/5/00)
Q 1.6-3) I can not access the URL for retrieving my license. What should I do? (Created 2/5/00)
Q 1.6-4) I have lost my license, but I am not able to access http://lfs.franz.com:4100/lostlicense. Is there an alternate location? (Created 2/5/00)
Q 1.6-5) [Trial users only] My license file is expiring: how do I renew and reinstall it? (Updated 2/12/00)
Q 1.6-6) [ACL Trial users only] I am trying to run the newlicense program to renew my ACL trial, but I get an error: "Unknown host: lfs.franz.com". How do I keep ACL trial from expiring? (Created 2/5/00)
Q 1.6-7) [ACL Trial users only] When I run newlicense to renew my ACL trial, I get a Connection Refused error. How can I fix that? (Except for version info, last modified 2/12/00)
Q 1.6-8) I still have problems with my license file. Can I contact Franz Inc. for assistance? (Created 2/5/00)
Q 1.6-9) I'm behind a firewall and am required to use a proxy host to access the web. How can I update my license file with the newlicense? (Last updated 7/23/03)
Q 1.6-10) [Trial Users Only] When I try to run Allegro CL, a message says my license has expired, but when I run newlicense, it says it is too early to renew. Why might this happen? (Created 10/21/03)
Q 1.7-1) How do I know if Allegro CL will run on my operating system version? (Created 10/12/04)
Q 1.7-2) What is the best question to ask of Franz Inc as to my particular operating system and Allegro CL? (Created 10/12/04)
[no entries at this time]
2.2. SGI
[Allegro CL 8.0 is not supported on the SGI.]
2.3. IBM RS6000
[no entries at this time]
Q 2.4-1) Allegro CL 8.0 won't start on HP/UX 10.20 because needed shared libraries seem to be missing. How can this be fixed? (Except for version info, last modified 5/1/01)
Q 2.4-2) Why do foreign loads sometimes cause Lisp to die on HP/UX 11.00? (Created 12/4/03)
2.5. HP ALPHA
[no entries at this time]
Q 2.6-1) How do I get the functionality of the ~/time/ and ~/date/ format directives available in 3.0.2? (Last modified 9/1/99)
Q 2.6-2) Why can't I use `dir' with run-shell-command? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 2.6-3) How do I get the functionality of the 3.0.2 function allegro:read-lisp-line? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 2.6-4) How do I control the stack size on Windows? (Last modified 8/9/02)
Q 2.6-5) How do I get ANSI ACL (rather than Modern ACL) to start when I double-click on an lpr file? (Created 11/14/00)
Q 2.7-1) On which x86 (i.e Intel Pentium and friends) Linux versions does Allegro CL 8.0 run? (Created 1/22/02)
Q 2.7-2) How can I replace lesstif installed with Redhat Linux 7.2 with Openmotif (required for CLIM)? (Created 4/9/02)
No entries at this time.
Q 3.1-1) I'm left with running Lisp processes after I exit my Emacs/xterm. What do I do to avoid this? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 3.1-2) Why doesn't make-pathname merge the given :directory component with the directory component in :defaults argument? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 3.1-3) I am getting stack overflows and occasional Lisp failure when I sort on large arrays. Why and what can I do? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 3.1-4) I have set the stack cushion to a reasonable value, but the soft stack limit is not being detected, and I get a lisp death instead. Why is that? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 3.1-5) Why does it take so long to load a file that interns several thousand symbols in a package? (Created 11/15/99)
3.2. Garbage collector
No entries at this time.
No entries at this time.
3.4: Time issues in Allegro CL
No entries at this time.
3.5: Lisp as a shared library (or DLL)
No entries at this time.
Q 3.6-1) Can I use CL-HTTP with Allegro CL? (Last modified 11/13/01)
No entries at this time.
Q 3.8-1) I get an error when I try to build an image with excl:build-lisp-image (and also with excl:generate-application) but the build process simply quits. How can I debug this error? (Last modified 7/6/02)
Q 3.8-2 removed because it is no longer relevant.
Q 3.8-3 removed because it is no longer relevant.
Q 3.8-4) I notice that when I run generate-application, a license file is placed in the distribution directory. Is that license file tied to the image file? (Created 1/16/01)
Q 3.9-1) Sometimes Allegro CL, particularly large images, run out of memory or fail totally with a bus error or a segv. Why might this be happening? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 3.9-2) How is heap placement determined and what can go wrong? (Created or last modified 11/14/00)
Q 3.9-3) How does Lisp start up, in terms of shared-library linking and loading? (Created or last modified 11/30/00)
Q 3.9-4) What is the "Old Sun4" problem? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 3.9-5) How can I tell what addresses are being used in my process space? (Last modified 6/7/02)
Q 3-9.6) [Windows only] How do I move DLL in memory so that it doesn't conflict with the Lisp heap? (Created or last modified 7/17/00)
Q 3-9.7) What does the "Temporarily scaling back lisp reserved region from XXX to YYY bytes." mean? (Created or last modified 7/17/00)
Q 4.1-1) How do I print to the emacs-lisp interface created *common-lisp* buffer when I run my application in its own Lisp image? (Last modified 10/31/01)
Q 4.1-2) Can I connect a UNIX emacs to a Windows Lisp? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.1-3) Can I run Emacs on Windows and Lisp on UNIX? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.1-4) Why doesn't the emacs-lisp interface startup when I don't have a network connection? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
4.2. Lisp-Editor Protocol (LEP)
Q 4.2-1) How can I open a stream to an emacs buffer? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.2-2) How can another stream be used for background output instead of creating the *background-interaction* buffer? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.2-3) How can arbitrary elisp code be run from lisp? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.2-4) Is there a way to programmatically determine if the emacs-lisp interface connect has been established? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.2-5) How can I tell if lep had a problem? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.3-1) How do I provide scrollable popup menus in Allegro CLIM 2.x? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.3-2) Why do I need an XNLSPATH environment variable? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.3-3) What should I do to avoid getting palette-full error messages? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.3-4) CLIM does not work on RedHat 9 with OpenMotif 2.2.2. Why not? (Created 8/26/03)
4.4. Common Graphics and the Integrated Development Environment [Windows only]
Q 4.4-1) How do I not save prefs.cl when I exit the ide? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.4-2) Sometimes when I run my project, I get mysterious redefinition warnings. Why and should I worry about them? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.4-3) I have developed my application in the IDE, and when I test it there it runs fine. But when I try to run the application as generated by File | Build Project Distribution, it starts and the application window appears, but it then immediately exits. (Created or last modified 9/3/99)
4.5. Runtime
[no entries at this time]
4.6 Allegro CL Trial
(The TRIAL edition is available for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and MacOS X. There are
some restrictions on the product. See the Franz Inc. home page (www.franz.com) for more information on the Trial
version.)
Q 4.6-1) What about patches for an ACL Trial image? (Created or last modified 11/14/00)
Q 4.6-2) When I try to run Allegro CL Trial, it fails with the error "missing or invalid license file". Why? (Except for version info, last modified 11/14/00)
Q 4.6-3) Why is there only one image with Trial (ANSI with the IDE)? How do I make other images? (Created 11/4/04)
4.7 OLE [Windows only]
No entries at this time.
Q 4.8-1) How do I set up an Excel spreadsheet for use with AODBC? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
Q 4.9-1) Why does composer:start-composer sometimes warn that "fcntl failed"? (Created or last modified 9/1/99)
AllegroStore is not available with Allegro CL 8.0.
4.11 Allegro CL jLinker Java interface
No entries at this time.
$Revision: 1.5 $
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