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Wow - that’s awesome! We would all be really grateful for a blog of your experiences, if you have time one day. Which field do you use it in? I have a stereotyp

Wow - that’s awesome! We would all be really grateful for a blog of your experiences, if you have time one day. Which field do you use it in? I have a stereotype that it’s mostly used in scientific / quantitative fields

mikelevins 5y ago
I've used it for a long time, so forgive me if this reply gets long. I'm not the only or primary author of all of these; only a few of them. - Panels [Apple, circa 1988]: an experimental graphical UI framework with a built-in constraint solver and extensible event-handling system - GATE [Apple, circa 1989]: a knowledge-based, distributed, automated testing system used to discover and report thousands of application-compatibility bugs in Mac system software before release - bauhaus [Apple, circa 1991-1994]: an experimental Lisp OS for Newton. The Newton OS (except the microkernel) was written in Dylan back when it was basically Scheme+CLOS; the Dylan compiler and development tools were written in Common Lisp. - SK8 [Apple, circa 1995-1997]: rapid-application-development system sometimes referred to as "HyperCard on Steroids". - Reactivity Application Firewall [Reactivity, circa 1998-2004; later Cisco]: Reactivity's product was a complex application-in-a-box that provided rule-based application-level security and integrity for networks. Cisco bought our company and folded it into their product line. I used Common Lisp for several code-analysis and documentation tools used in development of the product. - Clozure Common Lisp [Clozure Associates, circa 2006-present]: I wrote documentation and code for Clozure Common Lisp and some associated tools - Secure Outcomes LS1100 [Secure Outcomes, circa 2010]: I wrote the bulk of the control system and GUI for the Secure Outcomes fingerprint livescanner product, using Lispworks. - Delectus [my own product, circa 2010-present]: Delectus 1, a simple personal data manager, was written mostly in Scheme. Delectus 2, a more capable, flexible, and portable version, is still under development and is written entirely in Common Lisp. - Confidential project [Confidential client; 2020-present]: a knowledge-based, reasoning-based neurosymbolic machine-control system. As I mentioned, it's confidential, but I can say that it's designed to monitor and orchestrate a variety of different kinds of robots with human supervision in real time. I've omitted several free libraries and other open-source Lisp software that I've written over the years.
- abhinav22 5y ago
  That’s so cool! Simply amazing. And so much through lisp and its dialects. Thanks for sharing. Do you find Lispworks superior to SBCL / Emacs? Any tips for other programmers on what to do / what not to do when it comes to production level lisp programs?
  - mikelevins 5y ago
    I don't find SBCL or Lispworks superior overall. Each one is better than the other in specific, narrow ways. For example, you can't beat SBCL for availability of compatible open-source libraries. On the other hand, you can't beat Lispworks for a portable GUI framework. I use both. As for tips, there are probably a lot, but I have to take a break from HN right now to attend a work meeting. :-)
    - abhinav22 5y ago
      Thanks for all your insights today :-) Have a nice rest of the day!
      - kagevf 5y ago
        Can LispWorks (easily) use quicklisp libraries?
        mikelevins 5y ago
        Yes. Piece of cake. SBCL is better in the sense that almost everyone who writes an open-source library for Quicklisp distribution is going to test it with SBCL, so most of the time Quicklisp libraries just work with SBCL. Testing with other Lisps, including Lispworks, is not quite so automatic, so there's a little greater likelihood that something might fail to work. That being said, most libraries I've tried with Lispworks have worked without any trouble.
        kagevf 5y ago

mikelevins 5y ago

I've used it for a long time, so forgive me if this reply gets long. I'm not the only or primary author of all of these; only a few of them. - Panels [Apple, circa 1988]: an experimental graphical UI framework with a built-in constraint solver and extensible event-handling system - GATE [Apple, circa 1989]: a knowledge-based, distributed, automated testing system used to discover and report thousands of application-compatibility bugs in Mac system software before release - bauhaus [Apple, circa 1991-1994]: an experimental Lisp OS for Newton. The Newton OS (except the microkernel) was written in Dylan back when it was basically Scheme+CLOS; the Dylan compiler and development tools were written in Common Lisp. - SK8 [Apple, circa 1995-1997]: rapid-application-development system sometimes referred to as "HyperCard on Steroids". - Reactivity Application Firewall [Reactivity, circa 1998-2004; later Cisco]: Reactivity's product was a complex application-in-a-box that provided rule-based application-level security and integrity for networks. Cisco bought our company and folded it into their product line. I used Common Lisp for several code-analysis and documentation tools used in development of the product. - Clozure Common Lisp [Clozure Associates, circa 2006-present]: I wrote documentation and code for Clozure Common Lisp and some associated tools - Secure Outcomes LS1100 [Secure Outcomes, circa 2010]: I wrote the bulk of the control system and GUI for the Secure Outcomes fingerprint livescanner product, using Lispworks. - Delectus [my own product, circa 2010-present]: Delectus 1, a simple personal data manager, was written mostly in Scheme. Delectus 2, a more capable, flexible, and portable version, is still under development and is written entirely in Common Lisp. - Confidential project [Confidential client; 2020-present]: a knowledge-based, reasoning-based neurosymbolic machine-control system. As I mentioned, it's confidential, but I can say that it's designed to monitor and orchestrate a variety of different kinds of robots with human supervision in real time. I've omitted several free libraries and other open-source Lisp software that I've written over the years.

abhinav22 5y ago
That’s so cool! Simply amazing. And so much through lisp and its dialects. Thanks for sharing. Do you find Lispworks superior to SBCL / Emacs? Any tips for other programmers on what to do / what not to do when it comes to production level lisp programs?
- mikelevins 5y ago
  I don't find SBCL or Lispworks superior overall. Each one is better than the other in specific, narrow ways. For example, you can't beat SBCL for availability of compatible open-source libraries. On the other hand, you can't beat Lispworks for a portable GUI framework. I use both. As for tips, there are probably a lot, but I have to take a break from HN right now to attend a work meeting. :-)
  - abhinav22 5y ago
    Thanks for all your insights today :-) Have a nice rest of the day!
    - kagevf 5y ago
      Can LispWorks (easily) use quicklisp libraries?
      - mikelevins 5y ago
        Yes. Piece of cake. SBCL is better in the sense that almost everyone who writes an open-source library for Quicklisp distribution is going to test it with SBCL, so most of the time Quicklisp libraries just work with SBCL. Testing with other Lisps, including Lispworks, is not quite so automatic, so there's a little greater likelihood that something might fail to work. That being said, most libraries I've tried with Lispworks have worked without any trouble.
        kagevf 5y ago