@ irneb and divtiply:
What would it take to get this off the ground?
Many things
most notably:
- Someone (or rather more than one, or preferably some form of "organization") to take ownership of this.
- A forum to propose new functions / items for inclusion to this library. Also to discuss & vote on these functions. Note if CL is used as a benchmark, much of this is already done for us - it's been tweaked since the '80s, so chances are that quite a lot of thought has already been incorporated
- Some method of listing the accepted functions for inclusion, perhaps just a wiki page which could be the start of documentation
- Another forum where implementations are proposed, discussed, "better" alternatives suggested and voted on.
- A site where the latest version can easily be downloaded. This should also include a wiki-like documentation which can be downloaded to a local off-line file. Another reason CL is a good choice: much of the documentation is already in the hyperspec
- A "would be nice to have" is also some buy-in from the manufacturers of the programs where AutoLisp features as an extension language. i.e. AutoCAD, BricsCAD and other similar clones. But, this is not a necessity, as most of the lib can be implemented as normal Lisp defuns instead of needing built-in additions. Further, most of these also provide other ways to add Lisp functions, like ARX/BRX, or even just through DotNet.
The list is probably not complete, but I think it shows the main hurdles to navigate.
If you guys feel creating a new project just for this is over the top, then feel free to join my
Caddons project. I've already added some library functions there, together with some tools for use. It's just that I don't have the time to constantly give it the attention needed for such an undertaking on my own. It has a wiki built-in, as well as a forum for proposing "feature requests", bug reports and a general discussion.
Alternative (or in addition to) I've also started a wiki for listing possible extensions to AutoLisp, though its main aim is to revamp the entire Lisp engine to turn it into a much more powerful Lisping environment (perhaps a bit in excess of what this thread is about):
http://alisp-ext.wikidot.com/...I come from a background in lisp too...
Actually I came from the other side: Basic, Pascal, Java & C++ first, AutoLisp became like a drug after that, then I started looking at all the other Lisps and literally (note TRUE use of the word) fell in love with it. Thanks I'll take a look at that thread also.