The LispOS Project: a position paper, part 1

[Chris Bitmead uid]

>Once the technology establishes itself, *then* it can begin to spread.  People
>who have started using it because they *had* to may discover that its virtues
>extend beyond its initial sine-qua-non application.
>
>Case in point: Java and Dylan.  I gather Dylan existed before Java (at least,
>I heard of it some time earlier).  The two languages have some very similar
>goals and design philosophies.  But Java is apparently going to make it in the
>marketplace while Dylan appears to be dead.  Why?  Applets.  Gosling
>identified and targeted an application for which no existing technology was
>acceptable.  There was no such "killer app" for Dylan.

Of course Java wasn't built as a platform for applets. It was built by
some Sun engineers who felt it was the Right Thing, and then someone
discovered later a "killer app" for Java.