LispM Market Share

[Kenneth Forbus <forbus@A.CS.UIUC.EDU>]

I'm using Release 6.1 in my office, but I'm fairly well acquainted
with 7.2, since I'm out hacking at PARC a fair amount, and I have a
couple of donated 3670's (thank you, Motorola) that have 7.2 on them
as well as 6.1.

Yes, it's addicting to be able to do meta-V on any screen.  Yes, it's
wonderful to be able to click on anything.  And I could easily swap my
old machine for one running 7.2.  But I still choose to use 6.1 on my
office machine.  The daily drag of dynamic windows is just too much
for me.  I might feel differently if had all XL400's, but sorry, I
don't.  Given my constraints, 6.1 is a better Symbolics choice for me,
it seems, than 7.2.

Life is a series of trade-offs.  "Best" in one dimension doesn't
necessarily make something the best overall.  From what I've seen of
the prices for current Symbolics hardware technology and maintenance,
they are sufficiently high that the advantage in environment is not
enough to overcome other disadvantages for me.  Maybe the future will
be different.