Subject: Re: LispWorks status
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 1999/11/03
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3150645548242292@naggum.no>

* Eric Scott
| I'm considering getting LispWorks for my (NT) computer at home.  I'm
| aware that Harlequin was recently acquired by another company.  Does
| anyone have reliable information as to that company's continued long-term
| support of LispWorks?

  what is generally known is that the company that bought Harlequin had no
  idea what Lisp was good for, but started a learning process some time ago
  to figure it all out, which is a very good sign: there is no evidence to
  suggest that they will treat the Lisp side of the business lightly or to
  dismiss it out of hand.  Lisp made good money for Harlequin, and there is
  ample reason to believe in the sanity of the people who bought Harlequin
  -- and they aren't in it for the quick buck, so it is very unlikely that
  they will be attempting to sell it off to somebody who is willing to pay
  as much for it as the current owners could make over the next few years.

  ML and Dylan were scuttled because they actually failed to make money.
  what I understand from what I have heard, and not all of that has been
  fully public or officially supported, is that ML and Dylan sucked the
  value out of the language group, which Lisp funded well for itself, but
  not sufficiently for a sibling language, let alone two.  (it's ironic
  that Lucid died for the same stupid reason: some quick-bucketeers tried
  to make Lisp pay for C++ development, not out of a healthy surplus, but
  out of the operations budgets.)

  although I think you should use Franz Inc's Allegro CL because I find it
  technically superior in ways that are important to me, but which may not
  be important to you, so I won't bother you with them, you should have no
  fear for the future of Lispworks and should base your decision on equal
  trust in the staying power of both Franz Inc and Harlequin.  after all,
  Lisp was but a part of Harlequin, and the problems they had were not due
  to Lisp in any way.  once again, actually, Lisp has suffered somewhat
  from being in less-than-optimal company through no fault of its own.

#:Erik