> ... Symbolics were even worse - you were always in the development environment and couldn't get anything out except a saved state dump
Symbolics had a delivery Lisp on DOS/Windows called CLOE.
On a Lisp Machine one also was not always in the full development environment. But Lisp was the operating system and thus Lisp plus some dev tools was always there. But when one wanted to use the development environment to its full capability one would need to load more stuff and create worlds with more debug information.
The delivery of Lisp applications wasn't a thing until after the mid 80s. Before that there were not that many Lisp applications and not too much machines to install it on. This changed with UNIX workstations, 386/486 PCs, Macs with 68030/40. Even in the early 90s there were questions how to deliver Lisp software in static form to end users. The question was often answered with "rewrite it in C++". Sometimes: prototype it in Lisp and then rewrite it in C++. Sometimes: migrate to C++. Sometimes: use a Lisp compiler generating C code.
For some discussion of delivery problems in Lisp see the German Apply project from 1992:
Don't forget dedicated "delivery" 36xx series machines from Symbolics, which were lower priced specifically because they weren't supposed to be used with the development environment.
Minima was, AFAIK, special real-time variant of the Genera system, with noticeable differences - it also ran a different firmware at least on Ivory (differences in FEP<->OS interface from what I figured spelunking in code).
Minima was also used for some debug tooling for building the machines themselves, iirc.
Symbolics had a delivery Lisp on DOS/Windows called CLOE.
On a Lisp Machine one also was not always in the full development environment. But Lisp was the operating system and thus Lisp plus some dev tools was always there. But when one wanted to use the development environment to its full capability one would need to load more stuff and create worlds with more debug information.
The delivery of Lisp applications wasn't a thing until after the mid 80s. Before that there were not that many Lisp applications and not too much machines to install it on. This changed with UNIX workstations, 386/486 PCs, Macs with 68030/40. Even in the early 90s there were questions how to deliver Lisp software in static form to end users. The question was often answered with "rewrite it in C++". Sometimes: prototype it in Lisp and then rewrite it in C++. Sometimes: migrate to C++. Sometimes: use a Lisp compiler generating C code.
For some discussion of delivery problems in Lisp see the German Apply project from 1992:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229022605_APPLY_A_m...