porting XEmacs to MacOS X

Hi all,

I recently started the work on porting XEmacs to MacOS X using the 
Cocoa high-level framework, which is used to create all the widgets on 
this platform. I've been able to modify enough of the C and Lisp code 
so I can create an initial frame, albeit just an empty window. Things 
are progressing slowly because I work on this only during evenings and 
occasionally on weekends.

I've got a question regarding the development methodology. I'd like to 
have a little faster development cycle. Right now when I modify either 
the C or the Lisp code I rebuild by doing a make in the src/ directory. 
This tends to take quite a bit of time, so I was wondering if there is 
a better way of doing things, especially when only Lisp code is 
involved. Ideally I'd like to not have to recompile and dump the Lisp 
files used during the startup.

Is there a better way to do things?

Thanks,
Ovidiu