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From: hall@aplcenmp.apl.jhu.edu (Marty Hall)
Subject: Re: Lisp considered unfinished
Message-ID: <D9pBuK.2v6@aplcenmp.apl.jhu.edu>
Organization: JHU/APL AI Lab, Hopkins P/T CS Faculty
References: <neves-0206950926120001@neves.ils.nwu.edu> <3qnek3$mk@Yost.com> <KANDERSO.95Jun4194001@bitburg.bbn.com>
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Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 13:23:08 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.lisp:17994 comp.lang.lisp.mcl:7127 comp.lang.lisp.franz:487 comp.lang.lisp.x:1531 comp.lang.clos:3142

In article <KANDERSO.95Jun4194001@bitburg.bbn.com> 
kanderso@bitburg.bbn.com (Ken Anderson) writes:
[...]
>     * Lucid went out of business
>
>Why was that?  The hearsay says the C++ side brought the house down.

I think this is more than hearsay. The Lisp side of the house was
still making money, but they went far into debt to get into the
Energize and C++ business. When these businesses didn't make a profit,
the investors pulled the plug. One of their senior guys referred to it
as "Albatrossergize".

Be that as it may, I agree very much with Dave Yost that we should
take very seriously the real and perceived problems with Lisp, both on
the technical and political ends. The issues Dave mentioned should not
just be brushed aside in a defend-Lisp-at-all-costs fervor, as
sometimes happens on this group.

On a more upbeat note, here at the Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Lab, we have several Navy, ARPA, and Army projects
that make significant use of Lisp. The role of Lisp has gone over
pretty well with internal management and sponsors, even for the newly
starting programs. But JHU/APL is not mainstream industry. More
stories are needed like AT&T using Lisp (and AllegroStore) for their
Global BroadBand 2000 switching system. 
						- Marty
(proclaim '(inline skates))
