[mod.ai] Xerox 11xx vs. Symbolics 36xx vs. ...

ralph@lasso.UUCP (Ralph P. Sobek) (09/25/86)

I enjoyed all the discussion on the pluses and minuses of these and other
lisp machines.  I, myself, am an Interlisp user.  Those who know a
particular system well will prefer it over another.  All these lisp systems
are quite complex and require a long time, a year or so, before one achieves 
proficiency.  And as any language, human or otherwise, one's perception of 
one's environment depends upon the tools/semantics that the language provides.

I have always found Interlisp much more homogeneous than Zetalisp.  The
packages are structured so as to interface easily.  I find the written
documentation  also much more structured, and smaller, than the number of
volumes that come with a Symbolics.  Maybe, Symbolics users only use the
online documentation and thus avoid the pain of trying to find something
in the written documentation.  The last time I tried to find something in
the Symbolics manuals -- I gave up, frustrated! :-)

Interesting will be the future generation of lisp machines, after Common
Lisp.

	Ralph P. Sobek

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