Awesome UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics Lisp Machines • Hacker News Board

Re: Awesome UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics Lisp Machines

#11

Post by yinhm » Fri, Jan 21, 2011, 2:06 PM UTC

lispm wrote: post #3

unwind wrote: post #2

Interesting, having read about the Symbolics machines for years in various hacker-centric history texts, but never actually seen what their interfaces were like, this certainly piqued my interest. However (s the dynds.org domain name hints) this is very likely hosted in someone's home, on (guessing) ADSL or so. It seems to be very much starved for bandwidth, at the moment ... I gave up, for now.

Right, it is an iMac at my home behind an ADSL line. It's not really made for Hackernews size traffic. Interested persons might come back later, when the traffic died down. Typically Lisp Machines are only interesting for a few persons - so the average traffic is not really high.

Now, it's down.

Re: Awesome UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics Lisp Machines

#12

Post by aristidb » Fri, Jan 21, 2011, 2:18 PM UTC

Even people with the most superficial interest in Lisp will love to see screenshots, especially if they are described as awesome.

If they can.

Re: Awesome UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics Lisp Machines

#13

Post by gwern » Fri, Jan 21, 2011, 2:18 PM UTC

Natsu wrote: post #7

lispm wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, it is an iMac at my home behind an ADSL line. It's not really made for Hackernews size traffic. Interested persons might come back later, when the traffic died down. Typically Lisp Machines are only interesting for a few persons - so the average traffic is not really high.

You might be surprised at the interest something like this could generate if more people saw it. I can imagine a lot of things that people might want to do with these images. Not just the obvious historical interest, but I can imagine even stranger things, like it showing up as prior art for some patent. Don't laugh. I forget which computer, but I remember reading about how someone brought out a (working!) computer f…

You are suggesting that he give screenshots of copyrighted software a CC license? ....Right.

Re: Awesome UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics Lisp Machines

#14

Post by gnok » Fri, Jan 21, 2011, 2:49 PM UTC

gwern wrote: post #13

Natsu wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be surprised at the interest something like this could generate if more people saw it. I can imagine a lot of things that people might want to do with these images. Not just the obvious historical interest, but I can imagine even stranger things, like it showing up as prior art for some patent. Don't laugh. I forget which computer, but I remember reading about how someone brought out a (working!) computer f…

You are suggesting that he give screenshots of copyrighted software a CC license? ....Right.

How is that different from say, a CC licensed photograph of a car or an iPhone?

Re: Awesome UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics Lisp Machines

#15

Post by cpr » Fri, Jan 21, 2011, 3:02 PM UTC

Boy, that brought back happy memories!

I was running the MIT-EECS department computing machinery back when Symbolics and LMI (Lisp Machines, Inc--Greenblatt's competitor) were just getting going, and we had around 8 or 10 of the original LispMs for undergrads to use, wire-wrapped and all. Even those, as slow as they were, were impressive machines for the time, given the 'turtles all the way' down architecture. (Everything written in Lisp, except the microcode.)

Back then, we were using MIT's CHAOSnet, a home-grown competitor to PARC's original 3Mb Ethernet. Unhappy memories of big fat yellow coax everywhere, easily dented. We used a TDR a lot to find kinks in the cable when the network wasn't working well.

The LispMs were years ahead of their time in terms of sheer architectural genius, but were also incredibly baroque--many brilliant hackers adding ornament upon ornament for years...

Re: Awesome UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics Lisp Machines

#16

Post by brlewis » Fri, Jan 21, 2011, 3:02 PM UTC

swombat wrote: post #4

Instead of hosting 124 screenshots on what is apparently a home connection, perhaps you should upload them to an image/photo sharing site. It's not like there's any shortage of those. A free flickr account will probably do the job.

There's even mine written primarily in Scheme, apropos to these images: http://ourdoings.com/

Re: Awesome UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics Lisp Machines

#17

Post by mrbill » Fri, Jan 21, 2011, 3:31 PM UTC

I recently bought a MacIvory II board set with docs and install media and am awaiting the arrival of parts for the Quadra 700 that I'm going to host it in. I've got a Symbolics "fat" old-style keyboard that I'm going to make the USB adapter for, and then use that to run Genera over X on the LAN.

Re: Awesome UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics Lisp Machines

#18

Post by tdoggette » Fri, Jan 21, 2011, 4:06 PM UTC

lispm wrote: post #3

unwind wrote: post #2

Interesting, having read about the Symbolics machines for years in various hacker-centric history texts, but never actually seen what their interfaces were like, this certainly piqued my interest. However (s the dynds.org domain name hints) this is very likely hosted in someone's home, on (guessing) ADSL or so. It seems to be very much starved for bandwidth, at the moment ... I gave up, for now.

Right, it is an iMac at my home behind an ADSL line. It's not really made for Hackernews size traffic. Interested persons might come back later, when the traffic died down. Typically Lisp Machines are only interesting for a few persons - so the average traffic is not really high.

The thing is, if these screenshots are interesting, they'll spread from HN to blogs to the programming subreddit, and your iMac will just keep failing.

Even just an archive of these uploaded somewhere with a server would make them accessible.

Re: Awesome UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics Lisp Machines

#19

Post by davidcollantes » Fri, Jan 21, 2011, 5:02 PM UTC

You are certainly redefining "awesome" on this quasi-sensationalist submission.

Please host the screenshots somewhere decent (not on your home machine) and use a proper title ("UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics List Machines" should suffice).

I want to keep believing HN != Digg.

Re: Awesome UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics Lisp Machines

#20

Post by ptomato » Fri, Jan 21, 2011, 8:20 PM UTC

davidcollantes wrote: post #19

You are certainly redefining "awesome" on this quasi-sensationalist submission. Please host the screenshots somewhere decent (not on your home machine) and use a proper title ("UI screenshots from applications running on Symbolics List Machines" should suffice). I want to keep believing HN != Digg.

Oh, bugger off. Person hosting the screenshots isn't the person who submitted the article, first of all, and hosting something on your home machine certainly isn't HN inappropriate, even if it doesn't hold up terribly well.