welch@CIS.OHIO-STATE.EDU (Arun Welch) (04/14/89)
Folks, sit down while you're reading this... Envos closed their doors for business on monday, at 5pm PDT. We're really sorry to see them go, they had a lot to offer the Lisp community. Unfortunately, that's all the detail I can go into. They *are* working on a plan to continue support, so calling them or your sales rep right now will be pretty fruitless, as the plan hasn't finalised yet. For now, if you've got bugs/questions that you'd send to AISupport, your best bet is probably to send them to this list, or if you feel that it's an embarassingly trivial thing that "everyone" probably knows, send them to me and I'll either answer them or forward to the list anonymously. Carl Gadener will be on the 800 support line until things finalize too, but please call him for genuine bugs/help rather than to get the state/story on Envos, since that could tie up the line for someone with a genuine problem. John Sybalsky has committed to providing him all the development help he needs to keep people running, too. As I find out more on what the continued support will be, I'll keep the list informed. I really wish they'd made it. It'll be a poorer lisp environments market for the lack of them. ...arun ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arun Welch Lisp Systems Programmer, Lab for AI Research, Ohio State University welch@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (614) 292-0352
sritacco@hpbsla.HP.COM (Steve_Ritacco) (04/21/89)
Not having ever had access to either a D machine or the ENVOS software, I am still terribly sad to here that they are gone. Does this mean the end of all the tremendous PARC work on Interlisp, LOOPS, etc. Reading the various research papers that have come out of that group has been very inspiring, and will be missed. If this is the end of ENVOS I at least hope that the tremendous body of software will not be lost or bought and shelved by a competitor. Might I suggest it moving into the public domain or becoming part of the GNU project.
lanning.pa@XEROX.COM (Stan lanning) (04/21/89)
Don't confuse the commercial efforts around Lisp with the continuing research being done at PARC. Rest assured that PARC is alive and well. Our work continues on languages (both natural and artificial), programming environments, user interfaces, expert systems, fundamentals of AI, collaborative systems... [The above are my comments, all mine, and nothing but mine. Just because I work here doesn't mean I speak for Xerox.] ----- smL
Pahlavan.pasa@XEROX.COM (04/22/89)
--------------------------------------------- From: hpda!hpcuhb!hp-ses!hpdml93!hpbsla!sritacco @ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Steve_Ritacco) Organization: Hewlett-Packard Boise R & D Lab Subject: Re: RIP "Not having ever had access to either a D machine or the ENVOS software, I am still terribly sad to here that they are gone. Does this mean the end of all the tremendous PARC work on Interlisp, LOOPS, etc. Reading the various research papers that have come out of that group has been very inspiring, and will be missed. If this is the end of ENVOS I at least hope that the tremendous body of software will not be lost or bought and shelved by a competitor. Might I suggest it moving into the public domain or becoming part of the GNU project." ----------------------------------------------- A good suggestion. There are also other alternatives. The demise of ENVOS does not mean the end of PARC's seminal work on InterlispD, LOOPs or the innumerable other AI software tidbits written in Interlisp over the past seventeen years. That culture is too important and productive to be allowed to fade away. There are serious independent efforts to rescue the software in one form or another, ENVOS or no ENVOS. Unfortunately, it is premature to spill out the details now. If you are interested in a new chapter in the Interlisp epic, keep an eye on the AI trade journals in the next few months. Marcel Pahlavan A veteran of Xerox Artificial Intelligence Systems