[info-mcl] Pathname and Unicode in MCL 5.1

[Takehiko Abe]

Alexander Repenning wrote:

 >> MCL had been waiting for the 64-bit Mac OS for the last two years.
 >> But it turned out that Leopard will not be full 64-bit system. It
 >> is reported that Apple decided not to release full 64-bit
 >> Carbon. That was last June.
 >>
 >> http://www.carbondev.com/site/?page=64-bit+Carbon
 >>
 >> It means that MCL is completely screwed.
 >
 > No it does not. Carbon will hang around for a long time. Unless you
 > absolutely need a 64bit Lisp app there will be no real issue
 > compared to NOT having an Intel compiler.

I am a little surprised to find that some mcl users seem to miss the
implication. The MCL Intel Compiler needs 64-bit OS (because of # of
registers), and that means MCL needs 64-bit libraries on IntelMac.
(If you don't believe me, try running OpenMCL's Cocoa IDE on Tiger +
IntelMac.)

No 64-bit Carbon -->  No MCL on IntelMac.

I know that Alice had been working on MCL 5.2 for the last two years
(since the intel switch). That includes unicode support and mach-O
port etc.

These were being developed under the assumption that Apple will
release full set of 64-bit libraries with 10.5, which was fairly
reasonable one considering that Apple said so and the beta version of
10.5 had full 64-bit carbon libs.

However, the assumption was broken when Apple engineers revealed that
they won't release some 64-bit carbon libs (this despite they already
have them) -- that was last June. a particularly bad month for MCL.

Two years worth of work could be lost. Only way to rescue them (and
MCL) is to have a new 32-bit compiler for Intel. Now that Andrew
Shalit mentioned the 32-bit compiler (which I assumed was not feasible
previously), it may give some of us some hope.