some lisp newbie questions

Hello there,

I have decided to re-visit Lisp and try to re-learn it. My first attempt at lisp was about 20 years ago, when I was finishing
my Computer Science degree... At that time, I think I had some "immaturity" in learning new computer languages, and
out of two half/courses of Lisp, I barely managed to pass the first half, and the second half I dropped. At that time, I had
a hard time understanding the paradigms of lisp, being more used to the procedural languages such as Pascal, PL/I and
C. Since then, I have spent about 20 years professionaly programming in just about all other languages, currently doing
myst of my work in J2EE world, which is what my clients want. Recently, I have started embedding python code, to make
my application 'programmable', using Jython as an embedded scripting language in my J2EE applications with realy good
success. Since I was already using the python interpreter, my thoughts started going back to other interpretive languages
such as lisp, and here I am now, attempting to re-learn it. I have downloaded a version of LispWorks, and am attempting
to do some simple examples (I have also ordered a lisp book from Amazon)....

My questions about lisp, and LispWorks:

1) How does one connect from a running J2EE application to an instance of LispWorks ? I believe the LispWorks Orb product is such
a product, but I am not 100% sure. I am interested in both types of integration -- where a Java application instantiates
an instance of LispWorks, and where a continual LispWorks daemon is running, and listening on a TCP socket (SSL and
non-SSL 'plain'), receiving Lisp commands and executing them. and returning back results.

2) Furthermore, if the Lisp instance portion of this hybrid is running, can it persist it's running
environment at any time ? For example, if the "data is code" paradigm of lisp is used, and the actual lisp application has
grown during a 24 hour of continual running, can it save that "knowledge" (save itself?) to a file, so that when it re-starts, it can automatically
reload that enviornment (learned patterns for example)???

3) Is there a good example somewhere, where Lisp has been used in an enterprise scale project? How does one architect
large Lisp projects where a Lisp portion integrates seamlessly within the enterprise?

Thank you for your patience with all these newbie questions..

Regards, Aleksandar
Toronto

Re: some lisp newbie questions

On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 07:55:07 -0500, Aleksandar Matijaca <amatijaca@gmail.com> wrote:

> 1) How does one connect from a running J2EE application to an
> instance of LispWorks ?

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for but it might
be helpful:

  <http://foil.sourceforge.net/>

Cheers,
Edi.

Re: some lisp newbie questions

On Oct 30, 2005, at 7:55 AM, Aleksandar Matijaca wrote:

> 2)  Furthermore, if the Lisp instance portion of this hybrid is  
> running, can it persist it's running
> environment at any time ?  For example, if the "data is code"  
> paradigm of lisp is used, and the actual lisp application has
> grown during a 24 hour of continual running, can it save that  
> "knowledge" (save itself?) to a file, so that when it re-starts, it  
> can automatically
> reload that enviornment (learned patterns for example)???
>
> 3)  Is there a good example somewhere, where Lisp has been used in  
> an enterprise scale project?  How does one architect
> large Lisp projects where a Lisp portion integrates seamlessly  
> within the enterprise?

One approach to persistence and enterprise integration/communication  
would be to use a SQL database. Here are some Lisp/Database options:

http://www.cliki.net/database

CLSQL might be the best option to use for many different brands of  
SQL databases.

John DeSoi, Ph.D.
http://pgedit.com/
Power Tools for PostgreSQL