Thanks...
Pretty good info!
Some items..
I left MIT (I was then in the Math department as
a lecturer) for Berkeley in 1974.
I personally had access to Macsyma source at all times,
just not the Symbolics branch. And my hassle with MIT
was that I thought that others should have similar
access. The point was moot when no one else could
run the program (it relied on Maclisp and PDP-10
computers running the "ITS" operating system, meaning
that it could run only at MIT!), But when we at
Berkeley wrote a Maclisp-like system, jokingly called
Franz Lisp, but sufficient to run Macsyma on a VAX, in 1979)
it became an issue: could we send a copy to (say)
Caltech, where some people wanted to do symbolic
computing. Eventually we did, under a strained temporary
arrangement with MIT.. over 50 sites used it.
The DOE Macsyma was the archived
version that MIT was forced to turn over to the DOE. I
I do not think that there were significant improvements into
that code.. We at Berkeley made it run on VAX and SUN
and Lisa/Macintosh, and other Motorola 68000, also on
an IBM mainframe. This was done on the cheap, and any
algorithm development was always made available to any
interested parties, free. Some pieces went into the
Symbolics code, but not into the archive at DOE which
was static.
(Oddly enough, at one point Symbolics conceded it needed a
version of Macsyma running on UC Berkeley's "Franz Lisp"
running on Sun workstations. It insisted on paying UC a royalty for
doing so. Symbolics' lawyers were such hot-shots that
they managed to negotiate a royalty for software that
everyone else got absolutely free. Later Symbolics
then reneged on parts of the deal, but I personally was
able to re-do my kitchen with my share of the royalties.)
The DOE paid for development of software for the next generation of
lisp at MIT. A project called NIL, which was an apt
description of the result (a useless lisp for the VAX).
I don't know if that should be counted as an investment in
Macsyma. Maybe it was. Like buying shares of Enron might
be an investment?
Bill Schelter got Macsyma running in a more Common Lisp
oriented system, GCL (which was then Kyoto Common Lisp,
then AKCL for Austin-Kyoto CL). Did he have DOE or
other government funding? I don't know.
I cannot say for sure, but I doubt that any government agency
deliberately boycotted the purchase of software from
Symbolics because they were using DOE Macsyma. At various
times I called up the Symbolics sales number and asked
about Macsyma. The usual response was something like
"I never heard of that program."