Below are instructions for compiling LKB source code in Franz Allegro Common Lisp with Allegro CLIM. To be able to do this, you will need to buy a license from Franz Inc. The LKB may also be compiled in other Common Lisp implementations (see the section on open source Lisps below), but to get a 'native' graphical user interface requires a substitute for Allegro CLIM, such as McCLIM. In the absence of the latter, you may be able to use the non-CLIM Linguistic User Interface (LkbLui) to get graphics capabilities.

When compiling the LKB in a Lisp without CLIM, the system will operate in what is called tty mode, a command-line based environment that still allows access to most basic functionality. See the LkbTty page for more information on tty mode.

The following assumes that you have completed the installation instructions from the LkbInstallation page, including downloading and unpacking the archive lkb_source.tgz into a directory we will refer to as DELPHINHOME. Also, make sure the directory for LKB temporary files is available and, on Linux, confirm that a compatible version of OpenMotif is installed when using a local Allegro CL license (check the release notes for your software). Finally, Allegro CL by default ships with CLIM not included in the images. To generate a CLIM-enabled Allegro CL binary, execute the following from within the Allegro CL installation directory (not the DELPHINHOME directory):

  ./alisp -L buildclim.cl -kill

This should result in a new executable file clim in the current directory. While you are at it, consider getting the latest patches from Franz and re-building your images (see the release notes for instructions).

Start your Lisp environment, preferably as a sub-process to emacs. When using Allegro CL, use the clim binary (see above). The LkbEmacs page has instructions on how to run the LKB and Lisp with emacs, the standard editor.

Within Lisp, load the LKB compilation environment. In our examples, we will use pathnames relative to DELPHINHOME, so you can either make sure the Lisp considers DELPHINHOME the current directory (usually starting the process from within that directory should suffice) or expand the path values in these examples to full directory names relative to your system.

If your default image does not include CLIM, then you need to load it; either [Linux]

   (require :climxm)

or [Microsoft Windows]:

   (require :climnt)

If you don't have CLIM at all, you can still compile the LKB, but will only be able to use the tty mode.

Now enter:

  (load "lkb/src/general/loadup") 

There should be no error messages from this step. Next, request that the complete LKB code base be compiled (this now includes the MRS code):

  (compile-system "lkb" :force t)

This compiles and loads all the LKB files that are appropriate for your system. There may be some warning messages from the compiler -- these can usually be ignored, but if you subsequently have problems using the LKB, you should redo this process and examine the warning messages. You should now see the LKB Top interaction window, unless you are running in tty mode.

The :force keyword to compile-system() in the example above will make sure that all files are re-compiled cleanly. This is necessary when loading the LKB for the first time and every time you obtain updates to the LKB source tree. Once all files are compiled on your local system, however, it will be faster to just load the LKB code into Lisp, using:

  (load-system "lkb")

It is possible to make a development image in Allegro CL, for instance to make the LKB available to several users at your site. Take a look at the files image.lsp and deliver.lsp in the lkb/src/ACL_specific/ directory. Either one could be tuned for your needs, e.g. by adjusting path values or turning off :runtime mode. Loading one of these files into Allegro CL (after loadup.lsp) should result in a precompiled development image.

A fully open source version of the LKB is available, which uses SBCL and McCLIM, both of which are open source. Pre-built binaries are available for Linux and macOS. See the LkbFos page for the current status of this version.

If you want to take a look at the source code for the LKB and [incr tsdb()], you can access it through the SubVersion (SVN) revision control system, for example (in a typical Unix environment, or on Windows with suitable add-on software installed):

  svn checkout http://svn.delph-in.net/lkb/trunk lkb