LispWorks is computer software, a proprietary implementation and integrated development environment (IDE) for the programming language Common Lisp. LispWorks was developed by the UK software company Harlequin Ltd., and first published in 1989. Harlequin ultimately spun off its Lisp division as Xanalys Ltd., which took over management and rights to LispWorks. In January 2005, the Xanalys Lisp team formed LispWorks Ltd. to market, develop, and support the software.
LispWorks's features include: A native-code compiler and an interpreter for an extended ANSI Common Lisp An implementation of the Common Lisp Object System with support for the metaobject protocol Support for 32-bit and 64-bit versions Native threads and symmetric multiprocessing Unicode support: it can read and write files, and supports strings, so encoded Foreign language interface (FFI) to interface with routines written in C A Java interface The common application programming interface (CAPI) graphical user interface (GUI) toolkit, which provides native look-and-feel on Windows, Cocoa, GTK+, and Motif An Emacs-like editor; source code is included in the Professional edition A Lisp Listener, which provides a Common Lisp read–eval–print loop (REPL) A graphical debugger, inspector, stepper, profiler, class browser, etc. A facility to generate standalone executables and shared libraries; to reduce memory size, a tree shaker can be used to remove unused code and data On macOS, it provides a bridge to Objective-C for using Apple's Cocoa libraries Many of the libraries are written using the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS) and can be extended by the user, by writing subclasses and new methods
The Enterprise edition also includes KnowledgeWorks, which supports rule-based or logic programming (including support for Prolog); the CommonSQL database interface; and a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) binding.
In September 2009, it was announced that LispWorks 6 would support concurrent threads and the CAPI graphics toolkit had been extended to support GTK+. LispWorks 6.1, released in January 2012, included many further enhancements to CAPI, such as support for anti-aliased drawing.
LispWorks ran on the spacecraft Deep Space 1. The application called RAX won the NASA Software of the Year award in 1999.
Releases Date Version Company Notes 1987 alpha Harlequin Begun by British firm 12 Sep 1989 1.0 Harlequin GUI with CLX, CLUE, and LispWorks toolkit Dec 1991 3.0 Harlequin 17 Mar 1997 4.0 Harlequin For Windows, GUI with CAPI, CLIM 2.0 06 Jan 1999 4.1 Harlequin With CORBA, Linux port 19 Feb 2001 4.1.20 Xanalys 19 Dec 2001 4.2 Xanalys No run time fees for applications on Windows 05 May 2002 4.2.6 Xanalys 30 Jun 2003 4.3 Xanalys First release for macOS, with Cocoa support 08 Dec 2004 4.4 Xanalys 15 Apr 2005 4.4.5 LispWorks 31 Jul 2006 5.0 LispWorks 64-bit support, FreeBSD port 27 Mar 2008 5.1 LispWorks 06 Jan 2010 6.0 LispWorks With symmetric multiprocessing, Solaris on Intel port, CAPI for GTK+ 27 Jan 2012 6.1 LispWorks High-quality drawing, 64-bit FreeBSD port 05 May 2015 7.0 LispWorks ARM Linux, iOS, Android, full Unicode, Hobbyist Edition 13 Nov 2017 7.1 LispWorks 64-bit iOS, ARM64 Linux 14 Dec 2021 8.0 LispWorks Native support for Apple silicon Macs 03 Mar 2025 8.1 LispWorks Support for Wayland and Gtk+ 3
See also Allegro Common Lisp
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