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Dear Toshikai,







Hello again, after so many months. I've been waiting until I has some good
news to write. It  seems I can't wait  that long. Many unfortunate  things
have happened.   First, after  almost  two years  of promises  from  Texas
Instruments about a contract to do a LISP for them, they decide not to  do
it.  Next, a government grant to do  LISP for the Motorola 68000 has  been
stalled for four  months; I'd expected  the money by  March first, but  it
won't be available for several  more months.  I've been writing  proposals
and talking with  computer manufacturers and  publishers for almost  three
years now; all without results.  So The LISP Company is not doing well  at
all. Ruth had been promised a  year's research work by Burroughs in  Santa
Cruz, and had  taken a  leave of absence  from Santa  Clara University  to
accept that position.   Now it turns  out that they  cannot fullfil  their
promise, and Santa Clara has filled Ruth's position for next year. So here
we are:  neither of us has  income and Ruth's expecting in August!   We're
rather angry with the  world right now,  but will get  over it. Why  can't
corporations (people) keep promises?

Since you wrote,  I have completed  a seminar at  the West Coast  Computer
Faire --a two day tutorial on  LISP, Functional Programming, and AI; in  5
hours I took  people from the  basic notions of  computation as  deduction
plus control, to constraint-based programming. It was fun, but by the  end
of the  second day  I could  hardly  talk!  From  that experience  I  have
concluded that the typical one-hour classroom approach is totally  wrong!!
One should  be completely  submerged  in the  topic --like  the  intensive
language classes-- and  that's the  way to  get information  across (In  a
traditional hour  lecture,  one only  gets  about twenty  minutes  of  new
information). I will  try this technique  again in about  two weeks:   I'm
doing a one-week LISP course --10 hours a day, for 5 days.  LISP in  2-1/2
days, AI techniques in 2-1/2 days. I will be very tired when that's over!!

The course at Santa Clara University  that I mentioned in the last  letter
went  rather  well;  I  had  expected  to  continue  that  course  into  a
university-wide program to teach the general undergraduate about computing
--real computing, not the  Basic/word-processing crap that typically  gets
taught. I used LOGO, LISP, and Smalltalk, with an interactive  programming
lab, complete with a good understanding of object-oriented programming and
discussions of the structure and potentials of AI systems.

Unfortunately the University bureaucrats managed  to mess it up. The  Dean
of the Humanitites School said he and the President of the university were
all in favor of it; unfortunately, the  Dean is not to be trusted. He  did
nothing to get the program going, and I only discovered this after it  was
too late --six months  of effort wasted.   To further complicate  matters,
the Dean of Engineering decided he won't let me teach the course again  in
his school --turns out he thought  there was too much "philosophy" in  the
course and you can't teach philosophy to engineers. Now I ask you,  what's
wrong with "philosophy"?  --were not Archimedes and daVinci engineers  and
philosophers?  It's really  a stupid  argument because  I wasn't  teaching
philosophy, unless LISP is "Philosophy". The  Dean is a real jerk, and  it
turns out the  administration is as  bad as the  corporations I  mentioned
above.  This is particularly irritating becaue Santa Clara is a Jesuit-run
university, and I'd expected that such institutions would be a bit  better
than the rest of the world in dealing with people --See how naive I  am???
Unfortunately the  platitudes that  this institution  speaks are  somewhat
hollow.  So  I'm looking  for  another university  to continue  my  course
development.

Perhaps you now see  why I have  not written for so  long --no good  news,
only frustrations.

One severe  frustration is  trying  to get  hold  of a  Japanese  computer
manufacturer that is interested  in LISP. I have  tried NEC in the  United
States.  Last  year I  contacted their  west coast  representation in  Los
Angeles and he suggested that I write a proposal. I did so and called  the
individual several dozen  times; all  without any  resolution. His  bosses
won't give any answers. I've heard that Hitachi is going to release a  new
machine in the United States, so I  will try again with them I quess.   Do
you know  anything  about  their  plans?   Or  are  there  other  Japanese
companies that would  like The  LISP Company  to write  software for  them
(like Toshiba, perhaps)? LISP and LOGO  should do well in Japan  shouldn't
they?  Could you  get me  the names of  companies that  are building  LISP
machines and might be interested in  TLC as a software partner?  In  fact,
what do you think about becoming the Japanese representation for TLC?  Too
many questions, I know, but here's the last one:  Perhaps we could set  up
a hardware/software joint  venture with  a Japanese firm?  It sounds  like
some novel  architectures will  be coming  from your  country soon.   I've
heard that  there's a  "next-generation" machine  conference going  on  in
Japan this fall; I hope LISP will be represented there.

Well, it's 6AM and I've got a whole pile of notes to type, and yet another
proposal to write.  After three years  of writing proposals, I'm tired  of
it though.  And  with our  financial condition  I'm seriously  considering
abandoning TLC if things don't change  very soon. I hope things are  going
better for you, and hope to have better news for you next time I write.