[ACT-R-users] purchasing common lisp

[Dan Bothell]

--On Wednesday, April 28, 2004 12:26 PM -0400 Leo Johnson 
<ljohnso42 at comcast.net> wrote:

>
>
> It has been explained to me that in order for me to develop modules in
> ACT-R, I must have the common lisp software on my computer.  I am
> interested in purchasing the lisp software for a stand alone machine that
> is running Windows XP. Can anyone give me some help in finding the
> cheapest way that I can purchase the software?
>
>

First, a question - do you mean models, or do you mean actually
extending ACT-R by adding new modules to it?  An ACT-R model would
be a simulation of a person (typically) performing some task
written using ACT-R.  An ACT-R module is a component of the ACT-R
system that implements a set of features that can be used when
building an ACT-R model (for instance the vision module or motor
module).

If you are talking about writing models in ACT-R, then you do not
actually need to have Lisp software.  We provide an application
called the "Standalone ACT-R Environment" that includes a complete
Lisp implementation.  It can be found on the software page of the
ACT-R website (http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu).  It is sufficient for running
all of the models in the ACT-R tutorial and also for writing ones
own models.  It is not as fast or robust as using ACT-R with a
"better" Lisp application, but if you are not a Lisp programmer it
is probably the best place to start.

If you want to extend ACT-R by writing new modules for it, or you
need the extra speed and debugging facilities a full Lisp system
would provide, than you have lots of options.  There are many Lisp
systems that one can get that vary greatly in terms of price and
performance, and you can find more information at http://www.lisp.org.
In terms of commercial products, there are two main vendors of Lisp
applications for Windows: Franz Inc. (http://www.franz.com) produces
a product called Allegro Common Lisp and Xanalys (http://www.lispworks.com/)
produces a product called LispWorks.  Neither is what I would call
cheap, but they do offer limited time trial versions which you could
try if you are interested.

Hope that helps, and if you have any other questions feel free to ask,
Dan