Re: A personal outline of the history of Coral Common Lisp

Thank you for writing this: these personal histories of things are really va=
luable, I think.

--tim

> On 21 Jul 2024, at 16:32, Jeremy Jones <[email protected]> wrote:
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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 wr=
itten 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 o=
f things like ObjectLisp and Qlogo, because I wanted to keep it short and th=
ere's Google.=20
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> This is written from a failing memory, so please send me any corrections a=
nd suggestions.  I apologize in advance for leaving people out and getting t=
hings wrong. If anyone wants a more detailed history and/or wants to help, l=
et me know. After feedback and corrections, I'll probably turn this into a M=
edium article.=20
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> =E2=80=90--------
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> A personal outline of the history of Coral Common Lisp
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> I was hired by the Atari Cambridge Research Lab in 9/83 to write a compile=
r for Qlogo. They gave me a Symbolics 3600 and told me to model the compiler=
 on Guy Steele's Rabbit compiler.=20
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> The Atari lab closed in 4/84. I was one of three founders of Coral Softwar=
e, along with Steve Hain and Glenn Forrester in 9/84. Glenn handled the busi=
ness while Steve and I did the hacking.  Steve wrote the initial runtime and=
 I ported the Qlogo compiler to C for the Macintosh.
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> I was friends with Gary Byers while we both attended The Evergreen State C=
ollege. I convinced him to become Coral's first employee in 1/85. A month or=
 two later we hired Chris Fry and Gail Zacharias.
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> The technical team consisted of myself,  Steve, Gary, Gail, and Fry. We fo=
cused for two and a half years to produce Object Logo and CCL 1.0. We all co=
ntributed to all parts of the system but Gary took over the compiler, Steve t=
he GC and runtime,  Gail the editor Fred (Fred Resembles EMACS Deliberately)=
 and the Common Lisp Reader (written largely in LAP, Lisp Assembler Programm=
ing!), Fry filled out Common Lisp functionality and did QA, I did the IDE an=
d the integration with Mac toolbox.
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> 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 o=
thers I've forgotten.  At its peak I think Coral was eleven people.=20
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> CCL 1.0 was released in 6/87. It was a complete implementation of CLtL1 an=
d included an IDE and ObjectLisp. It ran on 512k Macs. (It was actually call=
ed 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.
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> Apple acquired Coral in 12/88 and changed the name of CCL to Macintosh Com=
mon Lisp (MCL). Apple hired Bill St Clair and Alice Hartley to continue work=
ing on MCL. Gary, Bill, and Alice continued working on MCL while the rest of=
 us worked on Dylan.
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> Apple spun off MCL to Digitool in the early 90s. Gary, Bill, and Alice con=
tinued to work on MCL at Digitool. Digitool failed as a business and owed Ga=
ry, Bill, and Alice a lot of back salary. Gary made a deal with Digitool to o=
pen source the non IDE portions of MCL in return for forgiving the debt. Thi=
s became OpenMCL.
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> Gary continued working on OpenMCL for JPL and Sandia. OpenMCL was used on s=
pace probes! Ron Garrett has told this story.=20
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> Gary, Gail, and I founded Clozure Associates in 2001. Clozure took over Op=
enMCL and renamed it to Clozure Common Lisp.  Lots of stuff happened to CCL i=
n 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.
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> In the 2010s, I left Clozure,  Gary and Gail retired. Clozure officially d=
isbanded as a company in 2022 I think. I have a deep appreciation for Matt a=
nd the others who are keeping CCL alive.
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> Finally I want to say that it has been an honor and a privilege to work wi=
th these amazing people for so many years. Thank you!
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> Jeremy=20
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