Re2: Future Plans for MCL

[jbk@world.std.com (Jeffrey B Kane)]

> We understand the desire that current MCL 2.0.1 users have to create
> applications which run in native mode on Power Macintosh.  At this time, we
> don't have plans to create a PowerPC native version of MCL on our own.  We
> are in discussions with several potential partners about collaborating on a
> native PowerPC version of MCL and in marketing MCL to the Lisp community.

Rick,
As Apple bought the only real group that was dedicated to bringing out Common
Lisp on the Mac platform (Coral software) and new Macintosh computers will be
PowerPC based, I do not have high expectations that MCL will have
much of a  future. As shown by past collaborative efforts, other companies
seldom have the Apples primary interest at heart.

MCL is Apple's only dynamic language and we use it extensively for commercial
vertical market product development, mission critical applications, and
internal research efforts.  Since last summer, many (if not most) Mac
development tools have been killed internally at Apple.  Apple seems to no
longer be particularly interested in funding any development tools for their
products. As such, I see Apple repositioning the Mac as computer to run word
processors,  simple databases, and spreadsheets.  To be honest, Intel based
machines can do  these tasks just as well.  I find the news of the
cancelation of MCL 3.0, the uncertain future of Bedrock, the cancelation of
further development of MPW based tools, the decline of ETO, and the fact
that every development direction that Apple has pushed over the last two
years at the WWDC (including MCL and Bedrock) all lead to a dead end and much
wasted money and time (from a commercial standpoint), a very ominous sign.

I think it is time that we start to seriously examine DOS, OS/2 and Unix based
Lisp products (including the IBM PPC based machines) and direct our future
vertical market applications at these platforms.  I hope Apple can survive on
the generic WP/DB/Spreadsheet market (with some QT movies thrown in). 

I have been in the position of getting macintosh CPUs into DOS-PC companies
because it is the only machine that will run our software programs.  Right now, I
would have a great deal of  trouble justifying this position.  It's a real
shame.


             Jeffrey Kane
             

======================================
Jeffrey Kane, MD
Kane Biomedical Systems
Boston, MA

Internet    jbk@world.std.com
Compuserve  74206,640
AppleLink   D0738