2017/10/01 by Paul McJones · 1 citation
Computer Science · #Computability, Logic, AI Algorithms
paper · doi:10.1109/mahc.2018.1221040
openalex publication_date 2017/10/01 · openalex created_date 2022/05/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
John McCarthy designed the LISP programming language for the symbolic computation typical of artificial intelligence at the time, and LISP was strongly associated with AI at least through the 1990s. By 1963, a number of ideas had been proposed for how LISP 1.5 could be improved and extended. This lead to the LISP 2 project, which was carried out at System Development Corporation by personnel from SDC and Information International, Inc., using the military AN/FSQ-32 computer. LISP 2 extended LISP 1.5 with ALGOL-like syntax, static type checking, efficient support for arithmetic and arrays, pattern-matching, and more, but the LISP 2 language failed to displace LISP 1.5. Despite this, LISP 2 foreshadowed later languages, such as ECL, Common Lisp, and Java. An online archive of LISP 2 documents and source code exists at the Computer History Museum, providing a snapshot of mid-1960s ARPA-funded research and development.