Lucid Inc.
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 1984 |
| Founder | Richard P. Gabriel |
| Defunct | 1994 |
| Headquarters | Menlo Park , United States |
Key people | Tony Slocum (CEO), Richard P. Gabriel (CTO and founding president) |
| Products | Lisp IDE, Energize (C++ IDE) |
Lucid Incorporated was a software company headquartered in Menlo Park, California, established by Richard P. Gabriel in 1984 and declared bankrupt by 1994.
History
The company's inaugural CEO was Tony Slocum, previously affiliated with IntelliCorp; meanwhile, Gabriel took on the roles of Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and founding president.
Early achievements
Lucid's flagship offering was a comprehensive Lisp IDE designed for Sun Microsystems' RISC platforms, essentially replicating the functionality of a Lisp machine IDE on more affordable hardware. Although Gabriel stepped down as President in 1987, he continued to serve as CTO.
Downturn
Amid the AI Winter, Lucid redirected its efforts from Lisp toward an object-oriented C++ IDE named "Energize." This product incorporated a fundamental element derived from Richard Stallman's GNU Emacs, which ultimately did not meet expectations. Contributors from Lucid, including Jamie Zawinski, participated in GNU Emacs development but later created a fork that evolved into XEmacs.
By 1994, Lucid's transition to C++ proved unsuccessful, and the neglect of its lucrative Lisp offerings led to revenue decline and bankruptcy. The rights to Lucid Common Lisp were acquired by Harlequin Ltd., which was subsequently purchased by Global Graphics. These rights were then transferred to Xanalys Corporation. Currently, LispWorks owns the rights and markets the product under the name "Liquid Common Lisp."
External links
- Patterns of Software – collection of essays by Gabriel, including autobiographical content about Lucid (pdf)
- "Letter to Chris DiBona and Tim O'Reilly" – open letter from Gabriel addressing the XEmacs fork and its depiction in Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution
- Collection of Lucid's Source Code – features Lucid Common Lisp, Energize (partial), and Lucid Emacs