Doing Personal Computer Software Development in the early 80s

[soundsop]

http://bhanwara.blogspot.com/2008/08/doing-personal-computer-software.html

[sanj]

This doesn't ring true to me.

I've never found any reference to VisiCalc being written in Lisp -- there's no reference to that at all in either Dan Bricklin's site or Bob Frankston's site:

http://www.bricklin.com/visicalc.htm

http://www.frankston.com/public/?name=implementingVisicalc

In fact, I've heard stories about wrangling assembly code to make it work.

Can anyone verify this?

[ken → sanj]

The above blog post is now #5 on google for "visicalc lisp". If Visicalc was written in Lisp, it's the best-kept secret of the 1980's.

[allenbrunson → sanj]

agreed. the author doesn't sound like a programmer, even. i smell a fake.

[sprachspiel]

That guy compares British rule in India around 1800 with Jewish rule in the US now. He dismisses the arguments of global warming, based on the claim that small differences can't cause big ones.

[sanj]

I actually think that this may be an honest mistake. Perhaps the author meant 'c' rather than Lisp.

Still, the unending self-congratulatory tone annoyed me.

[prakash]

what a fantastic story! I am subscribing to this blog. good find soundsop.

[mynameishere]

That just got more and more arrogant as it went along.

I could have easily rewritten the whole thing in assembly language in another 4-6 months if really encouraged.

Well, why didn't you do it on the side, quit, and sell it yourself?