Why Lisp machine? (To solve this problem which is no longer a problem today. Therefore it would be a solution looking for a problem) "Why Lisp Machines? The s

Why Lisp machine? (To solve this problem which is no longer a problem today. Therefore it would be a solution looking for a problem) "Why Lisp Machines? The standard platform for Lisp before Lisp machines was a timeshared PDP-10, but it was well known that one Lisp program could turn a timeshared KL-10 into unusable sludge for everyone else. It became technically feasible to build cheaper hardware that would run lisp better than on timeshared computers. The technological push was definitely from the top down; to run big, resource hungry lisp programs more cheaply. Lisp machines were not "personal" out of some desire make life pleasant for programmers, but simply because lisp would use 100% of whatever resources it had available. All code on these systems was written in Lisp simply because that was the easiest and most cost effective way to provide an operating system on this new hardware."