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![A newspaper clipping with a photo of Russel Noftsker that says:
AI superstar plunges to earth
Knowledge-based expert systems delivered on symbolic processing machines are "a trend that I'd say is unstoppable at this point."
Russel Noftsker
Chairman, Symbolics, Inc.
February 1986
"I don't want to see the company fail. I don't want to see any more employees lose their jobs."
Noftsker
February 1988
BY CLINTON WILDER
and STANLEY GIBSON
CW STAFF
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Like Icarus, Symbolics, Inc. thought there was no limit to how high... [the picture cuts off]
Its technology was the envy of that sexy new industry, artificial intelligence, and its rapid climb to the $100 million revenue level in 1986 earned it acclaim as "a stock market superstar."
Now mired in red ink and leaderless -- its founders having been eased out of control -- the firm stands as a classic case of missed opportunities, overreaching ambition and market insensitivity.
"Success can be seductive," said Barbara Isgur, a technology analyst with D. H. Brown Associates in Tarrytown, N.Y.
"It's hard to know when to turn the corner or change direction. I can't think of a company that's been able to do that without a lot of pain," Isgur said.
Symbolics -- which sprang up at the forefront of an indus-[the picture cuts off]](https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonie/media_attachments/files/114/235/950/790/971/333/original/a9a70d42bebacc9a.png "A newspaper clipping with a photo of Russel Noftsker that says:
AI superstar plunges to earth
Knowledge-based expert systems delivered on symbolic processing machines are \"a trend that I'd say is unstoppable at this point.\"
Russel Noftsker
Chairman, Symbolics, Inc.
February 1986
\"I don't want to see the company fail. I don't want to see any more employees lose their jobs.\"
Noftsker
February 1988
BY CLINTON WILDER
and STANLEY GIBSON
CW STAFF
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Like Icarus, Symbolics, Inc. thought there was no limit to how high... [the picture cuts off]
Its technology was the envy of that sexy new industry, artificial intelligence, and its rapid climb to the $100 million revenue level in 1986 earned it acclaim as \"a stock market superstar.\"
Now mired in red ink and leaderless -- its founders having been eased out of control -- the firm stands as a classic case of missed opportunities, overreaching ambition and market insensitivity.
\"Success can be seductive,\" said Barbara Isgur, a technology analyst with D. H. Brown Associates in Tarrytown, N.Y.
\"It's hard to know when to turn the corner or change direction. I can't think of a company that's been able to do that without a lot of pain,\" Isgur said.
Symbolics -- which sprang up at the forefront of an indus-[the picture cuts off]")
https://communitymedia.video/w/968LULd4gdi98BRLBDQ37E #interview with #gopher @someodd #haskell #technology #podcast featuring some #lisp #symbolics #reminiscences
gopher://gopher.someodd.zip
https://www.someodd.zip
someodd starting points
Connection was a bit spotty so we talked over each other occasionally. I forgot to boost the show toot, so if you would like to boost here that would be appreciated.
Feedback about the interview and interviews generally are welcome and wanted here.
This conversation triggered a memory....
Back at #Symbolics the standard methodology was for everyone to periodically run the Load Patches command, until the "Wobblies" built a new "world load" image containing all the latest yummy goodness, at which point people could download that and the process would start over.
There was this constant tension between wanting to Load Patches, or (sys:load-patches), and potentially break your image and have to reboot vs getting behind what the latest source code actually implements.
But you didn't really want to reboot because it took a long time and sometimes was "fraught with peril" because you might end up in the "cold load stream" due to some low-level FEP (something like a BIOS) changes. (Not to mention there was something of a competition to see who's machine had the longest uptime.)
@weekend_editor might remember more details than I do, or can correct me if I got something wrong. 
LOL it's 2025 and I'm learning how to clear a line with VT100 escape codes. Reminds me of how amazed I was to see the bitmapped #Symbolics #LispM console and its mouse interface in 1984.
"The mix-in revolution: How an ice cream innovator in Somerville influenced Lisp pioneers at the MIT AI Lab—and made a lasting mark on programming."
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/25/1111238/the-mix-in-revolution/
@rat @nosrednayduj @kentpitman
https://archives.anonradio.net/202502190000_screwtape.mp3
#interview #lisp #lambdaMOO featuring nosrednA yduJ #harlequin #gensym #symbolics #LOTS #protests sharpsign one hour
thanks everyone!
yduJ adds her favourite MOO object is #6656 Time Display [Department of Numerology]
Back in the 1980s, when my then-office-mate was developing the Japanese product for the Symbolics lisp machine, we had an electronic version of this.
It was a big pad, about 50cm x 50cm, with a stylus to pick out individual characters. This was for kanji; the hiragana and katakana were handled separately.
To watch him use it was amazing... and slow.
#adventofcode #adventofcode2024 Day 1 #CommonLisp
#Symbolics #Genera, #SBCL and #LispWorks on the new Mac mini
#lisp #commonlisp #lispworks #symbolics #lispmachine
Made the KR frame system from the UIMS Garnet for two Common Lisp implementations work: LispWorks 8 and Portable Genera. I used this version: https://github.com/ury-marshak/kr
Typical problem porting code:: the initial value for structure slots is undefined in CL. The code assumes NIL.
Attached a screenshot of the KR examples in Portable Genera, a Virtual Lisp Machine on an Apple Mac mini with M4 Pro.
Refurb weekend: the Symbolics MacIvory Lisp machine I have hated
Author: ClassicHasClass
Original: https://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2024/10/refurb-weekend-symbolics-macivory-lisp.html?m=1
@surabax 
What I find interesting in this Symbolics Genera retrospective by David Moon is the discussion of the origins and motivations behind the lack of kernel protection in the Lisp Machine environment and, more generally, in Lisp. These features emerged from social dynamics and values like the opennes of hacker culture as much as from engineering design decisions.
@ldbeth Have you tried to get your hands on the #Symbolics C source code? It compiled C to #Lisp and you might be able to re-use at least some of the front end code.
But it's probably locked in a vault somewhere with the rest of the #Genera source code. Not sure.
David A. Moon was one of the founders of Symbolics and one of the chief architects of its Lisp machines. In 1991, after he left Symbolics and joined Apple, he wrote this retrospective of Genera, "the world's first commercial object-oriented operating system": https://archive.org/details/genera-retrospective-1991
This Italian TV opening for 1990 FIFA World Cup was made on a Symbolics Lisp machine using S-Graphics software: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oe0webMVu0
You can watch the interview with the artist in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQKlgza_HgE
@amoroso #lisp #lispmachine #symbolics something similar in Symbolics Genera, inline in the Listener/REPL and as a window:
@hayley @amoroso #symbolics #genera #lisp #commonlisp Though that was Dynamic Windows. CLIM looked like this:
I have scanned and uploaded a manual for #Symbolics S-Geometry from 1988: https://archive.org/details/symbolics-s-geometry-manual
"S-Geometry is an integrated system for creating, modifying, and storing 3D objects. It is window-based and consists of a 3D database and a 3D editor."
@amoroso #symbolics #genera naturally also has graph drawing features. Attached screenshot shows a simple example. In the Listener (-> #lisp #repl) I define a new command Show Flavor Tree. It displays the inherited Flavors. Flavors are early classes on the #lispmachine. The Listener is also a drawing plane. The command takes the name of a flavor class, then calls the graph formatter with arguments. PRESENT-FLAVOR prints the flavor and makes it mouse sensitive.
