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CLISP VS Guile

Compare CLISP VS Guile and see what are their differences

CLISP logo CLISP

CLISP is a portable ANSI Common Lisp implementation and development environment by Bruno Haible.

Guile logo Guile

Guile is the GNU Ubiquitous Intelligent Language for Extensions, the official extension language for the GNU operating system.
  • CLISP Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-03-19
  • Guile Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-01-01

CLISP features and specs

  • Cross-platform compatibility
    CLISP is available on multiple platforms including Windows, macOS, and Linux, which makes it versatile and accessible for developers across different operating systems.
  • GNU Licensing
    Being licensed under the GNU General Public License, CLISP is free to use, modify, and distribute, which is beneficial for open-source projects and encourages community contributions.
  • Interpreter environment
    CLISP offers an interactive interpreter environment, allowing for rapid testing and prototyping of code, which can speed up development and debugging processes.
  • ANSI Common Lisp compliance
    CLISP adheres to the ANSI Common Lisp standard, ensuring that programs written in CLISP are compliant with the standard and thus more portable and reliable.

Possible disadvantages of CLISP

  • Performance limitations
    Compared to other Lisp implementations like SBCL, CLISP might exhibit slower performance, which can be a drawback for computation-heavy applications.
  • Limited support for external libraries
    CLISP may have limited or less convenient access to certain external libraries or advanced features compared to other implementations, potentially making integration with other systems or technologies more challenging.
  • Outdated documentation
    Some of CLISP's documentation and resources might be outdated, which can pose challenges for new users trying to learn and resolve issues using the available materials.
  • Less active community
    Compared to more popular Lisp systems, CLISP might have a smaller or less active community, which can result in fewer community-contributed resources or slower developments and updates.

Guile features and specs

  • Extensibility
    Guile is designed to be embedded into applications, allowing developers to extend their software with scripting capabilities.
  • Scheme Language
    Guile is based on Scheme, a minimalist and flexible dialect of Lisp, which encourages learning and adoption due to its simplicity and power.
  • Integration with C
    Guile can be easily integrated with C programs, allowing the use of C libraries and functionalities within scripts.
  • Garbage Collection
    Guile provides automatic memory management through garbage collection, which can simplify memory management tasks for developers.
  • Portability
    Guile is designed to be portable across different platforms, making it a versatile choice for cross-platform development.
  • GNU Project
    As part of the GNU Project, Guile comes with the support of a large and active open-source community, which can be beneficial for development and troubleshooting.

Possible disadvantages of Guile

  • Performance
    Compared to some other programming languages and scripting tools, Guile may not be as performant, especially in computation-heavy tasks.
  • Popularity
    Guile is less popular than some other scripting languages, which might lead to fewer resources, libraries, and community support.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite Scheme's minimalist design, developers unfamiliar with Lisp-like syntax might face a learning curve before becoming proficient with Guile.
  • Limited Educational Resources
    There are fewer tutorials, books, and courses focused specifically on Guile compared to other more widely-used scripting languages.
  • Integration Complexity
    Embedding Guile in an application may require additional effort and understanding of both the application and Guile's API.

CLISP videos

GNU CLISP - Brief introduction to install and setup of an artificially intelligent environment

Guile videos

Guile Review - with Tom Vasel

More videos:

  • Review - Guile Review - with Ryan Metzler
  • Review - Storm Collectibles GUILE Street Fighter Review BR / DiegoHDM

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CLISP and Guile)
Programming Language
53 53%
47% 47
IDE
66 66%
34% 34
OOP
47 47%
53% 53
Generic Programming Language

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, CLISP seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1 time since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

CLISP mentions (1)

  • What are the advantages for an imperative language to not be expression based?
    CLisp is an unfortunate contraction, also naming an implementation, but yes, the Common Lisp spec is that big. Source: over 2 years ago

Guile mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Guile yet. Tracking of Guile recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing CLISP and Guile, you can also consider the following products

Steel Bank Common Lisp - Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL) is a high performance Common Lisp compiler.

Racket Lang - Racket (formerly PLT Scheme) is a modern programming language in the Lisp/Scheme family, suitable...

CMU Common Lisp - CMUCL is a high-performance, free Common Lisp implementation.

Chicken - A portable and efficient cross-platform Scheme implementation that compiles to C.

Hy - Hy is a wonderful dialect of Lisp that’s embedded in Python.

Gambit - Cross-platform chess game.