> I know it doesn't want to be a serious language, but rather a toy for academic types
Only "experimental" status on Windows is definitely unfortunate for Windows SBCL users.
However, today in 2022, the server world has been eaten up by Linux. Few if any production server deployments would run on Windows -- there definitely might be some major ones but an overwhelming number would deploy to Linux. Then there would be a lot of developers that run Linux in a Virtual Machine, dual boot, use WSL/WSL2 or have a dedicated Linux machine.
There is also a influential but niche developer crowd that runs MacOS.
What I'm trying to say is that not having full support for Windows hardly implies "[SBCL] doesn't want to be a serious language, but rather a toy for academic types."
A statement like this may have been true in 2000. Not in 2022.
Windows is no longer the most important platform for people who either develop software or deploy software to servers.
I am not trying to criticize Windows in any way. It's just the reality that a big chunk of development action is taking place on Linux (and in a niche way on MacOS) today.
I don't know how true this is. Windows Server is massive in the enterprise corporate world. My first job as a system tech was spent exclusively on Windows machines across numerous large companies, and I've worked at several companies since that are Microsoft shops deploying to Windows Servers.
I never implied that Windows Server is not significant. It would definitely have a lot significant deployments. The absolute number of deployments would also be quite large. But I can bet that this will pale in comparison with Linux. Think about it -- all major cloud providers use Linux as a building block to provide their services. Their clients probably use Linux for deployment too.
My objection was to the statement that "[SBCL] doesn't want to be a serious language, but rather a toy for academic types". And to that I implied that Windows is no longer as dominant in 2022 as it may have been, say, in 2000.
Only "experimental" status on Windows is definitely unfortunate for Windows SBCL users.
However, today in 2022, the server world has been eaten up by Linux. Few if any production server deployments would run on Windows -- there definitely might be some major ones but an overwhelming number would deploy to Linux. Then there would be a lot of developers that run Linux in a Virtual Machine, dual boot, use WSL/WSL2 or have a dedicated Linux machine.
There is also a influential but niche developer crowd that runs MacOS.
What I'm trying to say is that not having full support for Windows hardly implies "[SBCL] doesn't want to be a serious language, but rather a toy for academic types."
A statement like this may have been true in 2000. Not in 2022.
Windows is no longer the most important platform for people who either develop software or deploy software to servers.
I am not trying to criticize Windows in any way. It's just the reality that a big chunk of development action is taking place on Linux (and in a niche way on MacOS) today.