AI "Expert"

[GRoberts@YUKON.SCRC.Symbolics.COM (Gary Roberts)]

    Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1991 13:24 EDT
    From: fleming@utdallas.edu (Mike Fleming)

    I rarely read AI Expert because of its pervasive anti-Lisp Machine bias. It
    gets tiresome to constantly hear Lisp Machines referred to as things of the
    past. Very few of the mags readers have any idea what they are missing.
    Richard Gabriel grudgingly states that "Even today you could argue that 
    that the Symbolics programming environment represents the state of the art."
    Is there anything that comes close? I work in graphics with the S-products,
    and I have never seen anything remotely close to my ability to add function-
    ality. I can do in the blink of an eye what would take a programmer with 
    access to, and intimate knowledge of the source code hours to accomplish.
    in any other system.
    So, later in the magazine they discuss LISP systems for the Mac and do not
    even mention the availability of MacIvory. Where is their logic? The only
    thing I can think of is that MacIvory is expensive. It is, for a hobbyist,
    but the productivity gains of using Genera easily justify the expense in a
    commercial setting.
    I think I'll go back to not reading AI 
    Expert.
    Michael Fleming

I've just returned from AAAI, where I got the chance to speak with
editors from a number of publications, including AI Expert.  I don't
think the issue is one of bias as much as the fact that they just
haven't heard much lately from Symbolics and its user community.  I've
made the first steps toward raising the profile of Symbolics among these
people through my AAAI discussions, but it was also made clear to me
that a message that comes only from a vendor such as Symbolics isn't
credible-- the people they really want to hear from are our customers
and other users.

The good news is that I believe these publications would be extremely
receptive to feedback from our user community.  For example, I believe
now that it would be fairly easy to get a user-written article published
in one magazine or another.  Topics that would be of high interest would
be a description of a successful application or a customer-written
"review" of a Symbolics product or products.  

I can help get an article "placed", and can also help with production or
editing if required. If anyone is interested in taking me up on this
offer, please contact me.  Be sure to provide an idea of what topics you
might be interested in writing about.