Abstract :
CSL is a Lisp system specifically designed to support the REDUCE algebra system. This paper view the Lisp system upon which a Lisp-coded algebra system is coded as in effect a micro-kernel—it provides basic compilation, storage management and extended arithmetic capabilities that algebra needs, but is not much concerned with higher level algebraic algorithms or with user interfaces. The description of CSL given here discusses the major design decisions embodied in the system, and shows the extent to which it has been possible to resolve conflicting goals of simplicity, small size, portability and high performance.
