Return of the Lisp Machine
Sunday, September 11, 2005
When the AI Winter hit, the big casualty was the
Lisp
Machine (LispM). Companies like
Symbolics, TI and
LMI just folded up their
LispM business or reduced it to just a shadow of what it had
been. There are a number of reasons why the technology of these
companies was effectively thrown away (I've
commented on this previously); but, the fact is, in 2005, you will be
hard-pressed to come across a working LispM. Nowadays (aside from a few exceptions where individuals or
companies are still using one), the only place you will see a LispM is
in a
museum or a
video. However, with the resurgence of interest in
Common Lisp in recent years, there has also been a resurgence in
interest in the LispM.
Rainer Joswig
recently posted on the work that Symbolics is doing to port the
Open Genera Virtual Lisp Machine to the Apple Mac. Although the
details are still a bit sketchy as to when a port might be available
and what pricing will be like (and whether there will eventually be an
x86 port when Apple starts moving over to Intel chips), at least there
is some proof that
Symbolics is planning to do something with the LispM IP
that is in it's possession.
But, port 1980's technology to a popular current platform? One might ask "why bother?" and this is a valid question to
ask. After all, the Genera LispM technology is really old technology and, if you want to
program in CL, there are excellent open source and commercial alternatives
available. However (as
others have said in the past), the quality and functionality of the
LispM development environments has yet to be matched by any
current IDE in any programming language. For someone who has never programmed on a LispM, this may
seem hard to believe; however, reading some of the reminiscences of
former users can give you a feel for what they were like (see
here,
here). Also, the availability of excellent open source CL
implementations and the stability of Common Lisp as a standard has
meant that it is possible (and practical) for one to develop on one
implementation and deliver on another. For example, I know of several full-time
Lisp consultants who develop on a commercial CL due to the
availability of tools and support but deliver on open source CL
implementations. The productivity advantages of having a LispM
environment available on current hardware would be a very compelling
alternative development environment for some Lisp developers.
So, if you want to be ready for the coming revolution ;-), here are some
links to help get you started:
- Symbolics Lisp Machine Museum
- Some LispM videos are available at Rainer Joswig's home page (mirrors of these videos are also available as Rainer's site can sometimes be slow)
- Jaap Weel's Lisp Machines page
- A few things I know about LISP Machines
- Bruce's Symbolics page
- A Brief History of Lisp Machines
- Symbolics Lisp Machine Museum
- The Retro-Computing Society of Rhode Island's Symbolics 3600 family Lisp Machine page
- Lisp Lore: A Guide to Programming the Lisp Machine
