[hutzlibu]

"It never had a specification concrete enough to implement because its chief architect always came off like a schizophrenic"

My takeaway was, that it never went anywhere, because the chief architect is a non technical person, not understanding the technical limits, but having a great ego and therefore was very hard to work with.

I do admire the basic vision (minus royalty), but I think it would take a new, clean and clear approach of designing, to make it actual usable. The way it is, it looks to me like a very early proof of concept, which is not much after all of those years.

[georgia_peach]

Ted wrote a book ("Computer Lib/Dream Machines", 1974). He still sells it! Ted has known how computers work, in high detail, for longer than most of us have been alive.

[jonjacky]

Yes! That book was an important contribution in its day. I wrote an appreciation of it here a few years ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22176769

[hutzlibu]

Hm, I have not read that book yet, but from what I gathered, it confirmed my view - that he has a generalist understanding of computers(and the sociological impact), but lack the details and don't know how to programm himself.

[georgia_peach]

As someone who has read that book, & owns it, I can attest to the fact that Ted knows more about how computers work than most people who call themselves professional programmers (I know, I know, low bar..., but even so).

If this were a forum, instead of a plantation, I could post selections from it, and you could see for yourself.