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Clozure Common Lisp VS CLISP

Compare Clozure Common Lisp VS CLISP and see what are their differences

Clozure Common Lisp logo Clozure Common Lisp

Clozure CL (often called CCL for short) is a free Common Lisp implementation with a long history.

CLISP logo CLISP

CLISP is a portable ANSI Common Lisp implementation and development environment by Bruno Haible.
  • Clozure Common Lisp Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-04-15
  • CLISP Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-03-19

Clozure Common Lisp features and specs

  • High Performance
    Clozure Common Lisp is known for its high performance, especially in numeric computations and complex applications, due to its efficient compiler and runtime system.
  • Cross-platform Support
    CCL runs on multiple platforms including macOS, Linux, and Windows, facilitating development across different operating systems.
  • Dynamic Typing and Flexibility
    CCL, like other Lisp dialects, offers dynamic typing and flexibility which allows developers to write code that can be easily modified and extended.
  • Interactivity
    CCL provides a powerful interactive development environment with a Read-Eval-Print Loop (REPL), allowing developers to test and debug code on the fly.
  • Compatibility with Common Lisp
    Being a comprehensive implementation of Common Lisp, CCL supports a wide range of Lisp features, making it compatible with existing Common Lisp codebases.
  • Active Community
    CCL has an active community that contributes to its development and support, resulting in a wealth of libraries and resources.

Possible disadvantages of Clozure Common Lisp

  • Limited GUI Libraries
    Clozure Common Lisp's support for graphical user interfaces is limited compared to other platforms, which may require additional effort for developing desktop applications.
  • Smaller User Base
    Compared to more mainstream languages like Python or Java, CCL has a smaller user base, which may result in less community support and fewer third-party libraries.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    As with many Lisp dialects, CCL can have a steep learning curve for developers unfamiliar with Lisp syntax and concepts.
  • Less Documentation
    Although there is documentation available, it may not be as extensive or detailed as that for more widely-used languages, potentially hindering new users.
  • Interoperability Challenges
    While CCL can interoperate with C and other languages, setting this up can be complex and may pose challenges for developers needing seamless integration.

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.

Clozure Common Lisp videos

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CLISP videos

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Clozure Common Lisp and CLISP)
Programming Language
42 42%
58% 58
IDE
47 47%
53% 53
OOP
34 34%
66% 66
Text Editors
49 49%
51% 51

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Clozure Common Lisp should be more popular than CLISP. It has been mentiond 6 times 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.

Clozure Common Lisp mentions (6)

  • Graphics Livecoding in Common Lisp
    Unfortunately CCL is Intel only on macOS. (macOS is not on the the main page https://ccl.clozure.com) Otherwise this is the one I would use as it has good Cocoa interoperability. - Source: Hacker News / 11 days ago
  • The IDEs we had 30 years ago and we lost
    The descendant of CCL runs on modern Intel Macs. (It also runs on Linux and Windows but without the IDE.) The modern IDE is quite a bit different from the original. In particular, it no longer has the interface builder. But it's still pretty good. It is now called Clozure Common Lisp (so the acronym is still CCL) and you can find it here: https://ccl.clozure.com/ If you want to run the original that is a bit... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • The Saga of the Closure Compiler, and Why TypeScript Won
    Just for fun there is also Clozure Common Lisp. https://ccl.clozure.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Consuming HTTP endpoint using Common Lisp
    I have decided it is time to have some fun and use Common Lisp to create algorithm representation that deals with parallel execution. For this I decided to use Clozure common lisp, put basic Qucklisp there and load some libraries to do this. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Corman Lisp development environment for MS Windows
    CCL also supports windows: https://ccl.clozure.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
View more

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

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Clozure Common Lisp and CLISP, you can also consider the following products

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

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

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

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

ManKai Common Lisp - ManKai Common Lisp (MKCL) aims to be a full implementation of the Common Lisp language in...

Armed Bear Common Lisp - Armed Bear Common Lisp (ABCL) is a full implementation of the Common Lisp language featuring both...