One small correction: the D machines weren't all smaller; there was the Dandelion (later sold as the Star), the Dolphin and the Dorado (which was a full rack, the size of a 32-bit CADR machine, and built of ECL logic). There were at least three different standard microcoded environments you could boot with, Interlisp-D, Smalltalk and Mesa. When I was at PARC if I worked late I could connect to a Dorado, but most of the time I used a Dolphin (plus my group had some Dandelions which ran some custom microcode). They could also run Alto microcode by the way.
I preferred the MIT lispm environment better because I grew up with it. For a while I had a job where I had both a dandelion and a 3600 in my office; later I had two 36xx machines, one with a color display.
They were pretty fast for their time. The late, hyper-dynamic window system was probably too heavyweight for its time, especially when later translated over X, but I generally used the simpler base window system because it was faster.
It was the most productive (in terms of amount of useful code generated per unit time) system I have ever used and I still miss it. The Interlisp D, though quite different to use (and in some ways better), is a close second.
Right, but the large one weren't sold, IIRC. Xerox sold the smaller ones, not the Dorado. That was also why some users upgraded to the Lisp Machines from LMI, Symbolics and TI: they had larger address spaces and could run larger software.
I preferred the MIT lispm environment better because I grew up with it. For a while I had a job where I had both a dandelion and a 3600 in my office; later I had two 36xx machines, one with a color display.
They were pretty fast for their time. The late, hyper-dynamic window system was probably too heavyweight for its time, especially when later translated over X, but I generally used the simpler base window system because it was faster.
It was the most productive (in terms of amount of useful code generated per unit time) system I have ever used and I still miss it. The Interlisp D, though quite different to use (and in some ways better), is a close second.