SLIME

SLIME, the Superior Lisp Interaction Mode for Emacs, is an Emacs mode for developing Common Lisp applications. SLIME originates in an Emacs mode called SLIM written by Eric Marsden. It is developed as an open-sourcepublic domain software project by Luke Gorrie and Helmut Eller. Over 100 Lisp developers have contributed code to SLIME since the project was started in 2003.

SLIME follows a client-server architecture, using a backend called Swank that is loaded into Common Lisp. In that regard, it is similar to the Language Server Protocol, which it predates. Some Common Lisp editors use a LSP client for Common Lisp.

SLIME works with the main Common Lisp implementations, such as:

• Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL)
• Clozure CL (former OpenMCL)
• LispWorks
• Allegro Common Lisp
• CLISP
• Embeddable Common Lisp (ECL)
• Armed Bear Common Lisp (ABCL)

Other programming languages can leverage SLIME with an editor plugin, or have plugins inspired by SLIME:

• Clojure
• JavaScript
• Scheme
• Kawa, a Scheme implementation
• GNU R
• Ruby
• MIT Scheme