What is the difference between a stock-hardware and a micro-coded machine in "A Critique of Common Lisp"? started out ranty, and people got carried away in the comments, but the underlying question is a good one. It's interesting, it's relevant, and deserves an answer. Could someone please clean up the comments and give it another shot? I have an unambiguous and clear answer ready to go.
I understand rants make people not want to help. That's what the edit button is for, not the close button.
OK. With three reopen votes I've added mine to reopen the question.
Let's see how it fares in it's current incarnation.
What is the problem the question is asking about?
I have no issue with gaining general knowledge of programming history (and if it is a history question, please remember to tag it as such - the answer for 1984 is different than the answer three decades later). It should be answered in that context if it is a history question. "Vaxes, MC68000’s, or any truly ‘stock’ hardware." as opposed to that of a lisp machine. Likely the best answer to the current incarnation is explaining how the lisp machine was made and how that differs from everything else. I don't know if anyone is going to try to make a hardware lisp machine today (or ever again).
If there is another question that is hiding behind this one - for example asking about the critique of LISP and if it is still a valid critique in today's computing world is one that is likely more relevant and much more interesting to the people reading and answering it.
