The Lisp list processing language is clearly facing a squeeze in the market and companies that formerly majored in the language are off-loading their interests. Last week, Apple Computer Inc handed its Macintosh Common Lisp assets over to Digitool Inc (CI No 2,546), and now Lucid Inc, whose name was once synonymous with Lisp, has passed rights to its Lucid Common Lisp and LispWorks to Harlequin Group Ltd of Longstanton, Cambridgeshire, which has bases in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Menlo Park. The deal follows the collapse of the July deal under which Franz Inc was to acquire Lucid’s assets.
