A personal outline of the history of Coral Common Lisp

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Disclaimer: This is an outline of the history of CCL only.  There is a lot
of important history missing because I wanted to focus on CCL. I've also
written more about the early years because it is less well known.
TONS of details and people have been left out. I've left out descriptions
of things like ObjectLisp and Qlogo, because I wanted to keep it short and
there's Google.

This is written from a failing memory, so please send me any corrections
and suggestions.  I apologize in advance for leaving people out and getting
things wrong. If anyone wants a more detailed history and/or wants to help,
let me know. After feedback and corrections, I'll probably turn this into a
Medium article.

=E2=80=90--------

A personal outline of the history of Coral Common Lisp


I was hired by the Atari Cambridge Research Lab in 9/83 to write a compiler
for Qlogo. They gave me a Symbolics 3600 and told me to model the compiler
on Guy Steele's Rabbit compiler.

The Atari lab closed in 4/84. I was one of three founders of Coral
Software, along with Steve Hain and Glenn Forrester in 9/84. Glenn handled
the business while Steve and I did the hacking.  Steve wrote the initial
runtime and I ported the Qlogo compiler to C for the Macintosh.

I was friends with Gary Byers while we both attended The Evergreen State
College. I convinced him to become Coral's first employee in 1/85. A month
or two later we hired Chris Fry and Gail Zacharias.

The technical team consisted of myself,  Steve, Gary, Gail, and Fry. We
focused for two and a half years to produce Object Logo and CCL 1.0. We all
contributed to all parts of the system but Gary took over the compiler,
Steve the GC and runtime,  Gail the editor Fred (Fred Resembles EMACS
Deliberately) and the Common Lisp Reader (written largely in LAP, Lisp
Assembler Programming!), Fry filled out Common Lisp functionality and did
QA, I did the IDE and the integration with Mac toolbox.

CCL would have totally failed if it wasn't for the non-technical people at
Coral.  Glenn for raising money, buying the house we used as an office, and
paying the bills.  Andrew Shalit for the excellent documentation.  Phillipe
Krakowski for marketing. Susan and Adrian,  administrative assistants and
others I've forgotten.  At its peak I think Coral was eleven people.

CCL 1.0 was released in 6/87. It was a complete implementation of CLtL1 and
included an IDE and ObjectLisp. It ran on 512k Macs. (It was actually
called Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp because of a misguided marketing deal
with Franz.) It was an incredible product, acquired many fans, and won
awards. It kicked ass.

Apple acquired Coral in 12/88 and changed the name of CCL to Macintosh
Common Lisp (MCL). Apple hired Bill St Clair and Alice Hartley to continue
working on MCL. Gary, Bill, and Alice continued working on MCL while the
rest of us worked on Dylan.

Apple spun off MCL to Digitool in the early 90s. Gary, Bill, and Alice
continued to work on MCL at Digitool. Digitool failed as a business and
owed Gary, Bill, and Alice a lot of back salary. Gary made a deal with
Digitool to open source the non IDE portions of MCL in return for forgiving
the debt. This became OpenMCL.

Gary continued working on OpenMCL for JPL and Sandia. OpenMCL was used on
space probes! Ron Garrett has told this story.

Gary, Gail, and I founded Clozure Associates in 2001. Clozure took over
OpenMCL and renamed it to Clozure Common Lisp.  Lots of stuff happened to
CCL in the 2000s including ports to Intel and ARM, an excellent Cocoa
bridge, and an IDE for Cocoa. Matt Emerson joined Clozure and ported CCL to
Intel32.

In the 2010s, I left Clozure,  Gary and Gail retired. Clozure officially
disbanded as a company in 2022 I think. I have a deep appreciation for Matt
and the others who are keeping CCL alive.

Finally I want to say that it has been an honor and a privilege to work
with these amazing people for so many years. Thank you!

Jeremy

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<div dir=3D"auto"><div dir=3D"auto">Disclaimer: This is an outline of the h=
istory of CCL only.=C2=A0 There is a lot of important history missing becau=
se I wanted to focus on CCL. I&#39;ve also written more about the early yea=
rs because it is less well known.</div><div dir=3D"auto">TONS of details an=
d people have been left out. I&#39;ve left out descriptions of things like =
ObjectLisp and Qlogo, because I wanted to keep it short and there&#39;s Goo=
gle.=C2=A0</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">This is writt=
en from a failing memory, so please send me any corrections and suggestions=
.=C2=A0 I apologize in advance for leaving people out and getting things wr=
ong. If anyone wants a more detailed history and/or wants to help, let me=
=C2=A0know. After feedback and corrections, I&#39;ll probably turn this int=
o a Medium article.=C2=A0</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto=
">=E2=80=90--------</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">A pe=
rsonal outline of the history of Coral Common Lisp</div><div dir=3D"auto"><=
br></div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">I was hired by the A=
tari Cambridge Research Lab in 9/83 to write a compiler for Qlogo. They gav=
e me a Symbolics 3600 and told me to model the compiler on Guy Steele&#39;s=
 Rabbit compiler.=C2=A0</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">=
The Atari lab closed in 4/84. I was one of three founders of Coral Software=
, along with Steve Hain and Glenn Forrester in 9/84. Glenn handled the busi=
ness while Steve and I did the hacking.=C2=A0 Steve wrote the initial runti=
me and I ported the Qlogo compiler to C for the Macintosh.</div><div dir=3D=
"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">I was friends with Gary Byers while we b=
oth attended The Evergreen State College. I convinced him to become Coral&#=
39;s first employee in 1/85. A month or two later we hired Chris Fry and Ga=
il Zacharias.</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">The techni=
cal team consisted of myself,=C2=A0 Steve, Gary, Gail, and Fry. We focused =
for two and a half years to produce Object Logo and CCL 1.0. We all contrib=
uted to all parts of the system but Gary took over the compiler, Steve the =
GC and runtime,=C2=A0 Gail the editor Fred (Fred Resembles EMACS Deliberate=
ly) and the Common Lisp Reader (written largely in LAP, Lisp Assembler Prog=
ramming!), Fry filled out Common Lisp functionality and did QA, I did the I=
DE and the integration with Mac toolbox.</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><=
div dir=3D"auto">CCL would have totally failed if it wasn&#39;t for the non=
-technical people at Coral.=C2=A0 Glenn for raising money, buying the house=
 we used as an office, and paying the bills.=C2=A0 Andrew Shalit for the ex=
cellent documentation.=C2=A0 Phillipe Krakowski for marketing. Susan and Ad=
rian,=C2=A0 administrative assistants and others I&#39;ve forgotten.=C2=A0 =
At its peak I think Coral was eleven people.=C2=A0</div><div dir=3D"auto"><=
br></div><div dir=3D"auto">CCL 1.0 was released in 6/87. It was a complete =
implementation of CLtL1 and included an IDE and ObjectLisp. It ran on 512k =
Macs. (It was actually called Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp because of a mi=
sguided marketing deal with Franz.) It was an incredible product, acquired =
many fans, and won awards. It kicked ass.</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div>=
<div dir=3D"auto">Apple acquired Coral in 12/88 and changed the name of CCL=
 to Macintosh Common Lisp (MCL). Apple hired Bill St Clair and Alice Hartle=
y to continue working on MCL. Gary, Bill, and Alice continued working on MC=
L while the rest of us worked on Dylan.</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><d=
iv dir=3D"auto">Apple spun off MCL to Digitool in the early 90s. Gary, Bill=
, and Alice continued to work on MCL at Digitool. Digitool failed as a busi=
ness and owed Gary, Bill, and Alice a lot of back salary. Gary made a deal =
with Digitool to open source the non IDE portions of MCL in return for forg=
iving the debt. This became OpenMCL.</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div =
dir=3D"auto">Gary continued working on OpenMCL for JPL and Sandia. OpenMCL =
was used on space probes! Ron Garrett has told this story.=C2=A0</div><div =
dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">Gary, Gail, and I founded Clozure =
Associates in 2001. Clozure took over OpenMCL and renamed it to Clozure Com=
mon Lisp.=C2=A0 Lots of stuff happened to CCL in the 2000s including ports =
to Intel and ARM, an excellent Cocoa bridge, and an IDE for Cocoa. Matt Eme=
rson joined Clozure and ported CCL to Intel32.</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br><=
/div><div dir=3D"auto">In the 2010s, I left Clozure,=C2=A0 Gary and Gail re=
tired. Clozure officially disbanded as a company in 2022 I think. I have a =
deep appreciation for Matt and the others who are keeping CCL alive.</div><=
div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">Finally I want to say that it =
has been an honor and a privilege to work with these amazing people for so =
many years. Thank you!</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto">J=
eremy=C2=A0</div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><d=
iv dir=3D"auto"><br><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div><div dir=3D"auto"><br></div=
></div></div>

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