Re: Selling Lisp

[Dimitri Simos <dim@lissys.demon.co.uk>]

Paul hasse wrote:

> I am also looking for specifics with respect to current use in industry.  The 
> feeling here is that lisp is an obscure tool only appropriate for acedemics.  

My case may be useful to you in your search for support:

I am an aeronautical engineer myself and developed an MCL application called
Piano for commercial aircraft project design and competitive analysis.
Originally I was with Rolls Royce's aero engine div. in Derby, UK, and had
to practically fight world war three to get them to accept a Macintosh
and MCL. Now I market Piano through my own company and it is in operation
with Airbus, DeHavilland, Allison Engines, BMW RR, the UK dept. of Trade
and Industry, UK Minstry of Defence and many others. It's been a good
success story for aerospace software. Rolls Royce use it an awful lot.

I am absolutely convinced that it could not have been achieved without
MCL and the Mac. Of course, it can be argued that you could write any
software in any language. Well, you could probably have written
Shakespeare's plays in the original Neanderthal sign language, but they
might have lost a certain 'je ne sais quoi' in terms of expressiveness,
compactness, elegnace, power and depth.

It's worth stressing that my background and education was in aero eng
and I had to teach myself MCL. If I can do it, other engineers certainly
can do it without problems.

Go for it, and don't let the ---------s grind you down. You are in the
right - and I don't think you'd need any C either. 
If you take out Lisp you'd soon end up stuck with a frozen architecture.

Good luck


ps. Isn't it funny how the traffic in this list has increased now
that MCL has a bright future ? I can't wait for 3.0 (ppc)!


--

Dimitri Simos                               dim@lissys.demon.co.uk
__________________________________________________________________
Lissys Ltd.                 Tel.(Voice & Fax): UK (+44) 509 235620