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\F1\CDec 3, 1978




Dear LISP person:

\JThis letter is a Yuletide appeal for help.
 First, I am organizing a
special issue of BYTE magazine for next August, dealing with LISP issues.
Second, I am proposing that we orgainze 
an international LISP conference for late 1980.   Below are some of the details.
\.

\C\F2 The BYTE Issue\F1

\JI have written a  "guest editorial" for the March 1979 issue of BYTE
nominally about LISP versus Pascal, but  in actuality more general in scope 
(I have enclosed a copy). After that handwaving editorial, the August issue should
contain some substantive articles, hopefully written by several of you.
 I have included a possible list of topics below. 
Papers must be ready by March 15, 1979.
Please think seriously
about my request; I feel it is very important to influence the
personal computer individuals away from their current rush 
towards "traditional" languages. 


Mathematical logic and LISP; LISP vs. APL; applications of LISP by a 
"theoretician"

LISP implementations for micros and minis.

LISP architecture

Killing the LISP "myths"; e.g. special purpose, inefficient, etc.

LISP applications of all kinds.

Interactive Development systems in LISP.

Languages for AI.

LISP future.
\.

\C\F2 The LISP Conference\F1

\JI would like to arrange a LISP conference
for sometime in 1980, probably in the Palo Alto area. 
Besides having a 
unifying effect within the LISP community, the 
conference proceedings would be a 
consolidated source of information for the broader computer community.

Considering the scope of LISP-related topics, we should begin to 
organize now. Therefore I am enclosing a zero-order list of topics for your
comments. Please comment on their appropriateness; please suggest other
topics; and please volunteer to help!

Possible Topic areas include:

\F2LISP Machines:\F1 Several full-scale efforts are underway for LISP-like
architectures; several micro-computer implementations are extant
or planned. It would be nice to have as many of these projects represented
as possible.

	   
\F2Education and Philosophy:\F1 This is a general, but
very important "lump area". LISP is an excellent vehicle on which to hang
most of modern computer science. 


\F2Theory:\F1 Several research projects deal with the provability of programs
expressed in LISP-like formalisms; many of these embody their results in
running systems. Work on semantics is also of interest.

	
\F2Applications:\F1 No language can claim a richer and more varied set of applications
than LISP. We should stress non-AI applications; LISP's diversity should be
made more widely known. Applications might include algebraic manipulation
systems, theorem provers  and verifiers, and applications in the  "non-technical"
sciences.


\F2Personal Computation:\F1 I am convinced that one of  LISP's best customers
will be the personal computer population. LISP's interaction, its range of
applications, and its portability, are all superior to the features currently
being attributed to Pascal.
The special 
LISP issue of BYTE
should  spawn many interesting  projects.


\F2Future, and Extensions, of LISP:\F1 John Backus' Turing lecture
has spawned much interest in applicative languages.
Several current research efforts deal with purified LISP-like 
languages. Within the AI community LISP has become a systems language
both in the sense of an implementation vehicle for AI languages as well as
the traditional sense of operating systems implementation.


\F2Other:\F1 The above topics are definitely far from  exclusive. 
Though perhaps we should minimize the AI-like applications to avoid conflicting
with the IJCAI program.

I am
sending this announcement to a   sample of LISP personages;
 your reactions will dictate much of the next step and as such will
greatly influence the success of the endeavor. Therefore please reflect,
and then respond soon.
\.

\←L\→S\←R\-L\/'2;\+L\→L

Yours sincerely,



John R. Allen   (JRA at SU-AI)
18215 Bayview Dr.
Los Gatos, Ca  95030
(408)353-2227
   or
Signetics Corp.
811 E. Arques Ave. Mail Stop 38
Sunnyvale, Ca 94086
(408)739-7700 X3456
\←S\→L