Ergonomics of the Symbolics Lisp Machine (2012)
&quot;The NYT article talks about computer-supported work in general. I will explain how the Symbolics Lisp environment made the software developer more productive. The Symbolics Lisp Machine was a high-tech solution. There are also useful lower-tech solutions. Many Lisp programmers like the relative &#x27;simplicity&#x27; of just an Emacs window with a &#x27;slave&#x27; Lisp process (say, SLIME + Emacs). Some of these developers are using just a terminal and Emacs. It gives them an integrated environment that is both simple and effective. The Symbolics Lisp Machine environment is more complex. It has been designed to support the development of novel and complex software, especially AI software. The whole point was to make an individual or a small group very productive and let them manage high complexity. Artificial Intelligence software often was very complex (Cyc is an example for that).&quot;<p>Somehow whenever Lisp is the topic we end up with writing like the above, hand-waving about some mysterious properties of Lisp that will bring us to programmer Nirvana.<p>It seems modern workstations have similar features as the described system, with much higher bloat, which certainly makes it impressive for its time.  I wish the article could have put more weight on the modern context and tone down the propaganda a bit.