6K views · Jul 25, 2015 · 1:09:26 · 1 HN recommender · 3 mentions · discussed 2021–2024
Kalman Reti, one of the last Symbolics developers, gives a roughly hour-long talk on Symbolics Lisp machines. It covers the machines and their environment from an insider's perspective.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN recommends it to anyone curious about Lisp machines, since it comes from someone who worked at Symbolics.
“If you only have 15 minutes, he gives another demo here”HN comment, 2021
“If you are into Lisp Machines, this talk on Symbolics by Kalman Reti (who worked there) is worth watching (1h)”
One-hour talk on Symbolics by a former employee
If you are into Lisp Machines, this talk on Symbolics by Kalman Reti (who worked there) is worth watching (1h): this video If you only have 15 minutes, he gives another demo here: link He has another video where he does some actual hacking (smooth scrolling of sheet music for display while playing an instrument): link
“Or online demos like for Symbolics.”
Symbolics Lisp machine demo showing the REPL environment
Common Lisp invented the REPL, Clojure only provides a subset of it. Have a look at, "The Interlisp Programming Environment", link Or online demos like this video for Symbolics. Ultimately you can try the community versions of Allegro and LispWorks. link link
“We took about 10 to 12 man-years to do the Ivory chip”
Reti on Symbolics' efficient chip design methodology
>In addition: two months to a compiler? Four to a complete chip? All from a team under 15 ppl? "Because of [Symbolics' automated design] methodology, we were able to do five different revs of the chip on four different technologies, which was pretty amazing [for the time]. ... We took about 10 to 12 man-years to do the Ivory chip, and the only comparable chip contemporaneous to that was the MicroVAX at DEC; I knew some people who worked on that, and their estimate was that it was 70 to 80 man-years to do the MicroVAX. That in a nutshell is the reason that the Symbolics lisp machine was great." -Kalman Reti (2012) this video Non-blub work environments bring sone fantasy-tier goals down to just within possibility by a motivated team of geniuses, which Symbolics had. Reminds me a little of how Alan Kay describes the forgotten art of Starrett erecting the empire state building in under a year: "Gentlemen, this building of yours is going to present unusual problems. Ordinary equipment won't be worth a damn on it. We'll buy and make new stuff, fitted for the job. That's what we do on every big job; it costs less than renting secondhand stuff, and it's more efficient." link
