Monthly FAQ Posting

[patl@goldfish.mitron.tek.com (Patrick Logan)]

   Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1992 08:07:13 +0100
   From: Tom Gordon <thomas@hera.gmd.de>
   > From alms@cambridge.apple.com Wed Dec  2 17:13:57 1992
   ...

   > Dylan(tm) FAQ December 2, 1992
   > 
   > This memo answers questions which are frequently asked about the Dylan
   > programming language.
   >
   > * Will there be Apple products based on Dylan?
   > 
   >   Apple has not announced any use of Dylan in products.
   > 
   > * +++ Is Dylan related to the Apple PDA project called Newton?
   > 
   >   No. Dylan is being created by Apple's Advanced Technology Group, and no
   >   product-specific implementations of Dylan have been announced yet.


   This is a surprise and a disappointed.  Am I mistaken, or didn't Scully
   announce Dylan at the same time as Newton, and specifically claim that 
   Dylan would be the programming language for Newton?  This is certainly the
   interpretation that has been promulgated in some magazines, such as Byte.

   And now I must read here that Dylan is not even "related" to Newton, let
   alone intended to be its principal programming language.

   One of the main reasons many of us have been interested in Dylan, as opposed
   to some other Lisp dialect, is because of the major committed to Dylan 
   implied by its choice for the Newton range of products.   Now I'm left
   wondering just how strong Apple's commitment to Dylan really is.  Will
   it be another non-start, like Apple's version of Smalltalk?


I read nothing in the FAQ that should disappoint you. This part of the
FAQ is more interesting for what it doesn't say than what it does say.
The part about the relationship between Dylan and Newton simply says
they are being created by two different groups within Apple. In that
sense only, it says, they are not related. It doesn't say that the
Newton group is not using or interested in using Dylan.

It is useful to read between the lines as well as the lines
themselves.
--
Patrick Logan         patl@goldfish.mitron.tek.com
Mitron Corporation    (503) 690-8350    FAX: (503) 690-9292
15256 NW Greenbrier Pkwy, Beaverton, OR 97006