上古的 MIT Lisp 机器系统软件的最后一个版本恢复成功
Lisp

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> 这是非常重要的、上古的计算机上运行的，古老软件的新版本。
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![](/data/attachment/album/202304/04/091132fa272ic7vcc5lupi.jpg)


LM-3 项目宣布了 MIT CADR <ruby> Lisp 机器 <rp>  （ </rp> <rt>  Lisp Machine </rt> <rp>  ） </rp></ruby>系统软件的第 100 版，这是它的最后一个版本。它既是一个新的版本，也是一个非常 古老的版本。


前两天，IBM 的 Eric Moore 在 LinkedIn 上发布了关于这个版本的 [消息](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mit-lisp-machine-final-version-recovered-after-35-years-eric-moore/)，他帮助了这项恢复工作。该项目的一个更详细的 [帖子](https://tumbleweed.nu/r/bug-lispm/forumpost/7475d8a3db) 描述了这个软件是什么，以及它是从哪里恢复的。


为什么这很重要？好吧，这款软件和它所运行的机器，是一场 “重要战斗” 的标志和纪念物。那场战斗是一场战争的一个阶段：一场以 “针锋相对的方式” 制造计算机的战争。“历史是由胜利者书写的”，温斯顿·丘吉尔 [不是](https://slate.com/culture/2019/11/history-is-written-by-the-victors-quote-origin.html) 第一个这样说的人。


这场战争和大多数战争一样，是两个 “对手阵营” 之间的战争。一方认为，制造计算机的正确方法是用最好的语言编写最好的软件，如果有必要的话，还要设计精工巧做的计算机来运行这些软件。另一方认为制造计算机的正确方法是制造小而快、容易而简单的软件和硬件，完成大多数人当时需要的工作。


同样，像大多数战争一样，这场战争是漫长而险恶的，双方都有一些肮脏的内斗。最终，有一方取得了决定性的胜利，但已经花了太长的时间，胜利者大多是开始战斗的那些人的后代和亲属。如今，他们甚至根本不记得有这么一场战争，而胜利的一方最终吸收了很多失败一方的想法和技术。最终的结果是，软件并不小而快，也不容易而简单。胜利的一方忘记了他们在战斗，也忘记了与之战斗的对手。


当胜利者忘记他们已经胜利了，也忘记了他们在战斗，这意味着失败者可以写一些最好的战争总结。一篇著名的报道是写自 1991 年的文章，名为《[Lisp：好消息，坏消息，如何大获全胜](https://www.dreamsongs.com/WIB.html)》，其中说：



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> 这两种哲学被称为 “<ruby> 做正确的事 <rp>  （ </rp> <rt>  The Right Thing </rt> <rp>  ） </rp></ruby>” 和 “<ruby> 差点则更好 <rp>  （ </rp> <rt>  Worse is Better </rt> <rp>  ） </rp></ruby>”。
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“做正确的事” 是麻省理工学院/斯坦福的设计风格。另一边呢？



> 
> 早期的 Unix 和 C 就是使用这种设计流派的例子，我将把这种设计策略的使用称为“新泽西方式”。
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这篇文章只有短短几页，但如果你现在没有时间，用一句话可以概况，即 “[差点则更好](https://www.dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html)”。


换句话说，一方从麻省理工学院和斯坦福大学开始，他们最终设计了一种叫做 <ruby> Lisp 机器 <rp>  （ </rp> <rt>  Lisp Machine </rt> <rp>  ） </rp></ruby> 的计算机。另一方建立了 Unix 和后来专用的工作站，以快速运行 Unix，这需要可以快速运行编译的 C 代码的特殊处理器，它被称为 RISC 芯片。英特尔和 AMD 将 RISC 的一些技术和方法改编为 486 和奔腾芯片，AMD 则改编为皓龙和 x86-64，结果是 x86 电脑最终将 RISC 工作站赶出了市场。不过，今天，由于高端的 [苹果芯片 Mac](https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/17/apple_m2_max_pro/) 和低端的 [RISC-V](https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/09/balthazar_free_hardware_laptop/)，RISC 正在复兴当中。


但是，x86、RISC 和 CISC，以及 [基于 Algol](https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/15/algol_60_at_60/) 的整个语言家族，包括从 BASIC 到 C++、到 Pascal、到 Go，基本上都是胜利一方的派别。而另一方现在几乎都被遗忘了，但有两个大的例子。一个是已故伟大的 <ruby> <a href="https://www.theregister.com/2011/10/24/father_lisp_ai_john_mccarthy_dies/">  约翰·麦卡锡 </a> <rp>  （ </rp> <rt>  John McCarthy </rt> <rp>  ） </rp></ruby> 创造的 Lisp，以及 [整个基于 Lisp 的操作系统](https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/29/non_c_operating_systems/) 所运行的 Lisp 机器。另一个是 [Smalltalk 和施乐公司的 Alto](https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/16/the_xerox_alto_50_years/)。


![Symbolics 3620 (left) and LMI Lambda Lisp machines](/data/attachment/album/202304/04/090948ij8pf2m2f8r7e2vk.jpg)


麻省理工学院第一次尝试建造运行 Lisp 的计算机是一台 1974 年的原型机，名为 [CONS](http://gunkies.org/wiki/CONS)，它以 Lisp 的一个关键词命名。1979 年，它更成功的后代被称为 [CADR](http://gunkies.org/wiki/CADR)。CADR 计算机后来成为两家商业 Lisp 机器公司 LMI 和 Symbolics 的首批产品的基础，后者拥有互联网上的第一个 .com 域名。这些公司的成立，以及它们的软件的分拆，[开始了](https://www.gnu.org/gnu/rms-lisp.html) 一个叫 <ruby> 理查德·斯托曼 <rp>  （ </rp> <rt>  Richard Stallman </rt> <rp>  ） </rp></ruby> 的年轻黑客的职业生涯。


这条蓝色的导火索启动了 Emacs、GNU 项目，以及 <ruby> 自由软件运动 <rp>  （ </rp> <rt>  Free Software movement </rt> <rp>  ） </rp></ruby>。该项目建立了 GCC 等工具，这些工具被用来创建 Linux，而 Linux 本身也启动了 <ruby> 开源运动 <rp>  （ </rp> <rt>  Open Source movement </rt> <rp>  ） </rp></ruby>。


这次恢复的软件是麻省理工学院 CADR Lisp 机器的系统软件的最终版本。该软件是从麻省理工学院 <ruby> <a href="https://archivesspace.mit.edu/repositories/2/resources/1265">  技术广场磁带 </a> <rp>  （ </rp> <rt>  Tapes of Tech Square </rt> <rp>  ） </rp></ruby>（ToTS）收藏中的备份磁带上提取的，但它花了十年的时间来提取数据，对其进行清理，并使其在 35 年后首次运行。这是一个庞大的 [工程](https://tumbleweed.nu/lm-3/)。


是的，如今可以运行这个软件，至少在软件模拟器上可以运行，比如最初由 [Brad Parker](http://www.unlambda.com/) 开发的 [usim](https://lisp-machine.org/hacking-usim-a-mit-cadr-lisp-machine-emulator/)。它的源代码和一些历史都在 [GitHub](https://github.com/unya/usim) 上。




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via: <https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/31/mit_cadr_software_recovered/> 


作者：[Liam Proven](https://www.theregister.com/Author/Liam-Proven) 译者：[wxy](https://github.com/wxy) 校对：[wxy](https://github.com/wxy)


本文由 [LCTT](https://github.com/LCTT/TranslateProject) 原创编译，[Linux中国](/article-15684-1.html) 荣誉推出


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# Version 100 of the MIT Lisp Machine software recovered

## A new version of very old software for a very old, but very important, computer

The LM-3 project has announced version 100, the last ever release of the system software for the MIT CADR Lisp Machine. So, both a new release and a very old one all at once.

[News](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mit-lisp-machine-final-version-recovered-after-35-years-eric-moore/) of this release came yesterday in a LinkedIn post by IBM's Eric Moore, who helped in the recovery effort. A more detailed [post](https://tumbleweed.nu/r/bug-lispm/forumpost/7475d8a3db) from the restoration project describes what the software is, and from where it was recovered.

Why does it matter? Well, this piece of software, and the machines it ran on, are markers, memorials of a significant battle. That battle was one stage in a war: a war of rival ways to make computers. "History is written by the victors," as Winston Churchill [wasn't](https://slate.com/culture/2019/11/history-is-written-by-the-victors-quote-origin.html) the first to say.

This war was, like most, between two rival camps. One side believed the right way to make computers was to write the best possible software in the best possible language, and if necessary, design special fancy computers to run that software. The other side believed the right way to make computers was to make software and hardware that was small, quick, easy, and simple, that did what most people needed at that point in time.

And again, like most wars, this one was long and vicious, with some dirty in-fighting on both sides. In the end, one side conclusively won, but it took long enough that the winners were mostly the descendants and relatives of the people who started fighting. Today, they don't even remember that there was a war at all, and the winning side ended up incorporating a lot of ideas and technologies from the losers. The end result was that the software wasn't small, or quick, or easy, or simple. The side that won forgot that they were fighting or that there was anyone to fight against.

When the winners forget they've won, or that they were fighting, that means that the losing side get to write some of the best summaries of the war. One famous account is a 1991 article called [Lisp: Good News, Bad News, How to Win Big](https://www.dreamsongs.com/WIB.html), which says:

The two philosophies are called *The Right Thing* and *Worse is Better*.

The Right Thing is the MIT/Stanford style of design. The other side?

Early Unix and C are examples of the use of this school of design, and I will call the use of this design strategy the New Jersey approach.

The article is only a few pages long, but if you don't have the time right now, there's a quite short, readable extract called [Worse is Better](https://www.dreamsongs.com/WorseIsBetter.html).

In other words, one side started up at MIT and Stanford University, and they ended up designing a type of computer called a Lisp Machine. The other side built Unix and later special workstations to run Unix fast, which needed special processors designed to run compiled C code fast, known as RISC chips. Intel and AMD adapted some of the techniques and methods from RISC into the 486 and Pentium Pro, and AMD with the Opteron and x86-64, and as a result x86 PCs ended up driving RISC workstations off the market. Today, though, thanks to [Apple Silicon Macs](https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/17/apple_m2_max_pro/) on the high end and [RISC-V](https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/09/balthazar_free_hardware_laptop/) on the low end, RISC is enjoying a renaissance.

But x86, and RISC and CISC, and the whole family of languages [based on Algol](https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/15/algol_60_at_60/), including everything from BASIC to C++ to Pascal to Go, are basically factions on the winning side. The other side is largely forgotten now, but there are two big examples. One is Lisp, as created by [the late great John McCarthy](https://www.theregister.com/2011/10/24/father_lisp_ai_john_mccarthy_dies/), and the Lisp Machines that [entire Lisp-based operating systems](https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/29/non_c_operating_systems/) ran on. The other is [Smalltalk and the Xerox Alto](https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/16/the_xerox_alto_50_years/).

MIT's first attempt to build a computer to run Lisp was a 1974 prototype called [CONS](http://gunkies.org/wiki/CONS), named after a Lisp keyword. In 1979, its more successful offspring was called [CADR](http://gunkies.org/wiki/CADR). The CADR computer went on to form the basis of the first products of two commercial Lisp Machine companies, LMI and Symbolics, the latter of whom had the first ever dot-com domain on the Internet. The founding of these companies, and the splitting of their software, [started](https://www.gnu.org/gnu/rms-lisp.html) the career of a young hacker called Richard Stallman.

[Croquet for Unity: Live, network-transparent 3D gaming... but it's so much more](https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/23/croquet_for_unity/)[ReMarkable emits Type Folio keyboard cover for e-paper tablet](https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/16/remarkable_launches_type_folio_keyboard/)[The quest to make Linux bulletproof](https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/16/bulletproof_linux/)[Linux luminaries discuss efforts to bring Rust to the kernel](https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/16/rust_in_the_linux_kernel/)

This is the blue touchpaper that started Emacs, the GNU Project, and so the Free Software movement. That project built tools such as GCC which were used to create Linux, which itself kicked off the Open Source movement.

What's been recovered is the final version of the system software of the MIT CADR Lisp Machine. The software was pulled off a backup tape in MIT's *Tapes of Tech Square* collection, or [ToTS](https://archivesspace.mit.edu/repositories/2/resources/1265) for short, but it's taken a decade of work to extract the data, clean it up, and get it running for the first time in 35 years. It's a big [project](https://tumbleweed.nu/lm-3/).

And yes, it is possible to run the software today, at least on software emulators, such as [usim](https://lisp-machine.org/hacking-usim-a-mit-cadr-lisp-machine-emulator/), originally by [Brad Parker](http://www.unlambda.com/). Its source and some history are on [Github](https://github.com/unya/usim). ®

### Bootnote

Thanks to reader Mike W for letting us know about this.

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