Le Sursis


Le Sursis 0.1.1 Released

Version 0.1.1 is now available. This fixes a bug that I missed from version 0.1. I didn't make much noise about it so only a few people downloaded it. If you're one of them, you'll want to get this.

This release contains support for basic GET queries, as promised. And sursis-html, the html-generator, works well (now). You can get it via http (le-sursis-0.1.1.tgz) or via ftp (le-sursis-0.1.1.tgz)

Enjoy, and don't be timid about sending your comments to me, and your flames to /dev/null.


[Online Documentation] - This is generated from the texinfo documentation, so the formatting's a little odd. Blame makeinfo, not me. Or better yet, look at the info file.


What is Le Sursis?

Le Sursis is a project to facilitate CGI programming in Common Lisp. I use CLISP, so it will always be supported. However, adding support for other Lisps should be trivial, as it only uses one non-standard function (system::getenv to get the environmental variables necessary to support the CGI standard).

Where can I get it?

You can get it via http (le-sursis-0.1.1.tgz) or via ftp (le-sursis-0.1.1.tgz).

What's up with the name?

Le Sursis nominally stands for Sane and Usable Response to Scripting Internet Sites. Sursis is a French word which means "reprieve," as in "a reprieve from Perl." It is, unfortunately, only a reprieve, as it will almost certainly be necessary to use Perl the next time you have to work on someone else's script. But at least you can enjoy using Lisp while you can!

Le Sursis is also the title of a wonderful book by Jean-Paul Sartre, one of my favorite authors. It is the second book in the three part series Les Chemins de la Liberté (The Paths to Freedom). As Le Sursis is Free Software, I think this makes the name even more appropriate.

Is it Free Software?

Of course! It is covered by the GNU GPL. If you have a compelling reason why it should be released under the LGPL, feel free to tell me (Tom Burdick <noc@users.sourceforge.net>), but you'll want to read "Why you should not use the Library GPL for your next Library" first.

Where is this headed?

0.1
Basic support for GET queries on CLISP.
0.2
Support for GET and PUT queries. Possible support for other Lisp systems.
1.0
Full support for the CGI spec. Support for several Lisp systems, possibly including Scheme or other dialects. Optimizations. Possibly other features.

Of course, there will be releases between 0.2 and 1.0 (probably many). I'd love to include Scheme support, preferably for Guile, but at the moment it doesn't support byte-compilation or saving memory images or anything, so I'll have to look at other, faster, systems.

Can I help?

Absolutely! I would love patches to add support for whatever Lisp system you use--whether that's another CL or Scheme or something else--or even to add real features. Once I get a chance to learn how to put code into and update code in CVS, I'll keep it in there. And I'll be making frequent releases so you can keep up on improvements.


Tom Burdick <noc@users.sourceforge.net>
Please keep in mind that I'm a student, so I may reply in 3 minutes or 3 weeks :)

Copyright (C) 2000 Tom Burdick

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