Common Lisp Interface Manager

The Common Lisp Interface Manager (CLIM) is a Common Lisp-based programming interface for creating user interfaces, i.e., graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It provides an application programming interface (API) to user interface facilities for the programming language Lisp.^[1] It is a fully object-oriented programming user interface management system,^[2] using the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS) and is based on the mechanism of stream input and output.^[3] There are also facilities for output device independence. It is descended from the GUI system Dynamic Windows^[4] of Symbolics' Lisp machines between 1988 and 1993.

... you can check out Common Lisp Interface Manager (CLIM). A descendant of the Symbolics Lisp machines GUI framework, CLIM is powerful but complex. Although many commercial Common Lisp implementations actually support it, it doesn't seem to have seen a lot of use. But in the past couple years, an open-source implementation of CLIM, McCLIM – now hosted at Common-Lisp.net^[5] – has been picking up steam lately, so we may be on the verge of a CLIM renaissance. – From Practical Common Lisp^[6]

Common Lisp Interface Manager

Developer(s)	International Lisp Associates, Symbolics Inc., Xerox Corporation, Franz Inc., LispWorks Ltd.
Initial release	1993; 32 years ago (1993)
Written in	Common Lisp CLOS
Operating system	Cross-platform
Platform	IA-32, x86-64
Available in	English
Type	Widget toolkit
License	LGPL
Website	common-lisp.net/project/mcclim

The main development was CLIM 2.0, released in 1993. It is free and open source software released under a GNU Library General Public License (LGPL).

CLIM has been designed to be portable across different Common Lisp implementations and different windowing systems. It uses a reflective architecture for its window system interface.^[7] CLIM supports, like Dynamic Windows, so-called Presentations.^[8][9][10]

CLIM is available for Allegro CL,^[11] LispWorks,^[12] Macintosh Common Lisp, and Symbolics Genera^[13]

McCLIM Lisp Listener

A free software implementation of CLIM is named McCLIM.^[14] It has several extensions to CLIM and has been used for several applications like Climacs, an Emacs-like editor. It also provides a mouse-sensitive Lisp Listener, a read–eval–print loop (REPL) for Common Lisp.^[15]

Applications using CLIM

• BB1 Blackboard Kernel (BBK)^[16]
• CLASP: analyzes data from experiments via graphics, statistical tests, and various data manipulation types^[17]
• CLIB, a prototype interface builder for CLIM^[18]
• Direct Labor Management System (DLMS), manages automobile manufacturing process system at Ford assembly plants^[19]
• DLMAPS, an ontology-based spatial query language and environment, a predecessor of GeoSPARQL^[20]
• GenEd, editor with generic semantics for formal reasoning on visual notations^[21]
• Grasper-CL, graph management system^[22]
• KONWERK, a domain independent configuration tool
• Mirage, an editor for building gadget-oriented graphical user interfaces.
• Pathway Tools, a comprehensive bioinformatics software package that spans genome data management, systems biology, and omics data analysis.^[23]
• Petri nets, a Petri net editor and simulator
• SENEX, a CLOS/CLIM application for molecular pathology
• SPIKE, scheduling system for the Hubble space telescope observations. Also used for ASTRO-D, an X-Ray observation astronomy mission
• SpyGlass, an analysis environment for viewing packet traces, from BBN.
• VITRA Workbench, an integrated vision and natural language processing system
• VISCO, a visual spatial query language^[24]
• Climaxima, a Maxima (software) graphical front-end.
• Tangram, a Tangram Puzzle Solver capable of solving arbitrary geometric tiling problems.