Our Manifesto (Please Read)

[Dwight Hughes]

Martin Cracauer's comments seem to cover what I would like changed 
also. A manifesto should present why we are here, what our ultimate
goal is, and why we think it will be worthwhile.

All implementation and development process details should be removed
from the manifesto. All bashing of specific operating systems should
be removed also.

How I would begin the manifesto:

The first aspect of the project, the LispOS, has as its purpose
the creation of an operating system/environment, written entirely in
Common Lisp, in the spirit of the legendary LispMs -- one that will 
significantly advance the art of OS design through integration of
the most powerful ideas, concepts, and models available to us -- 
creating a dynamic, high-level, easily modified, easily extended,
robust, high performance system that can represent the best in
software design at all levels, from the bare metal to the user
interface -- enabling the creation of systems too complex or too
dynamic for practical or feasible use of any present static model
operating system. Furthermore, this should be accomplished on common
PC hardware and should be free to all. Yet it should be capable,
through the benefit of the high level design capabilities inherent
in Common Lisp, of adapting to the greatest diversity of hardware
platforms and architectures. 

The second aspect of the project, the LispVM, has as its purpose
the creation of a portable, efficient, nearly universal virtual 
machine that can bring as many benefits of the LispOS to other
operating systems as is practical within their limitations and serve
as a target for code developed using the LispOS.

....

(I know some of these points are still a bit contentious, but these are
my desires anyway.)

-- Dwight