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From: Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: The Lisa (was: The DOS 3.3 SYS.COM Bug Hunt)
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2025 21:46:31 -0000 (UTC)
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On 28 Feb 2025 09:49:01 GMT, Stefan Ram wrote:

> Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> wrote or quoted:
>>
>> Me: So, how do you program it?
> 
> IIRC at one point in time around 1981, the answer was:
> You buy a Lisa.

The original 128K Mac was simply too resource-starved to self-host any 
useful development environment.

Except ... Forth. I think there was a Forth-based product called “Neon” 
that actually let you write programs on a 128K Mac, to run on a 128K Mac.

The more expensive 512K Mac (not that the 128K Mac was cheap) opened a few 
more opportunities for self-hosted development. “What will we do with all 
that memory?” people asked. Andy Herzfeld answered: “Why not multitask 
more than one program at once? Behold, I give you ... Switcher!”

Then the Mac Plus in 1986 launched a whole new era. Suddenly the Macintosh 
wasn’t a toy any more.