Re: Preserving Apple Dylan

When I was at Apple Cambridge (after the Dylan group was disbanded) I
inherited a bunch of Dylan stuff that was still in the office,
including a CD backup of the development server. It included design
documents and source code. I've tried many times to find it but have
not had much luck. However, I know a few people who may still have a
copy and I will reach out to them, and I will continue to search boxes
hoping to find it. I think Gary Byers was involved in that port as
well: he's still active with CCL and may have a copy stashed
somewhere.

Reaching out to Tim Cook may be worth doing, but unless we have
something substantial (i.e., "Hi Tim, we have the source code for
Apple Dylan which was killed almost 20 years ago. How would you feel
about releasing it to the CHM or something?") it isn't worth his time.

We may be able to find parts of it: Jeremy Jones may have the IDE
source code, for example. Moon may still have the garbage collector
stashed away somewhere. Mike Lockwood may. ALMS may have it.

This weekend I'll try to find the Dylan scrapbook I have and scan its pages.

    -tree


On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 4:39 AM, Bruce Mitchener
<[email protected]> wrote:
> Every one in a while, I wonder what it might take to find a way to preserve
> the Apple Dylan sources. I'm not interested in developing them or anything
> like that, but it would be great to have them preserved for the future.
>
> I've got a couple of inquiries out on this with some people and have talked
> about it some with Mikel Evins (who also has an inquiry out), but I figured
> I'd try for a larger audience.
>
> One thing is that we aren't sure that the sources even exist any longer or
> that anyone would know where to find them.
>
> One interesting possible route is that Apple contracted Digitool to do the
> PowerPC port in 1995 or 1996 (which also involved, I think, a port from MCL
> 3.x to 4.x).  Apparently, at least Bill St. Clair and Stephen L. Haine at
> Digitool were involved in this and perhaps had the ability to publish a new
> build.  I've no idea what the contract between Apple and Digitool involved.
>
> Another possible route is that at least some assets were transferred from
> Apple to Harlequin, I believe, in 1996 or 1997. I think that this included
> some of the DRM rights as well as the Apple Dylan test suite. I've not run
> into anyone that knew anything further.
>
> Is anyone still in contact with Bill St. Clair, Stephen L. Haine, or other
> people who might have an idea or lead on this?
>
> If nothing else, it would be useful to confirm that the sources even exist
>
> Is there any general interest in helping to chase this down?
>
> Thanks,
>
>  - Bruce
>
>
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>



-- 
Tom Emerson
[email protected]
http://www.dreamersrealm.net/tree