Bogodyne Metatechnics LLC does not in any way deal with Symbolics and/or their intellectual property. We are unable to provide support for their software or hardware. For support with Symbolics products, please refer to their web site.
To understand the relationship between MIT, Symbolics, LMI, and Bogodyne Metatechnics, we have to establish some definitions:
ZetaLisp is the name of a family of Lisp dialects.
MIT ZetaLisp is the name of the original MIT Lisp Machine Lisp dialect.
LMI ZetaLisp is the name of LMI’s branch of MIT ZetaLisp.
Symbolics ZetaLisp is the name of Symbolics’s branch of MIT ZetaLisp.
ZetaLisp was used to implement larger systems with compilers, editors, network stacks, and so on. Those larger systems were the “Operating System” for the various Lisp Machine implementations. MIT and LMI called theirs “System”. Symbolics called theirs Genera. The name “ZetaLisp” was also used to describe the entire family of ZetaLisp-based operating systems.
Therefore:
MIT System is the name of an operating system built on MIT ZetaLisp.
LMI System is the name of an operating system built on LMI ZetaLisp.
Symbolics Genera is the name of an operating system built on Symbolics ZetaLisp.
Symbolics Genera and the LMI System are both descendants of the MIT System. Symbolics Genera was forked from MIT System 83. LMI continued to track the MIT System until its final release, MIT System 99, after which they continued numbering their own releases starting at LMI System 100.
Both Symbolics and LMI contributed patches backwards into the MIT System source tree. MIT would then redistribute LMI patches to Symbolics, and vice versa. However, as LMI and MIT used the same System fork and Symbolics did not, LMI’s patches were largely useless to Symbolics. This situation was considered unfair by Symbolics, and they sued over it. The outcome of this legal action was that MIT was no longer allowed to share Symbolics’s patches with LMI, or vice versa. Previously shared patches were considered to be grandfathered and a license was granted so all parties involved could continue to use them.
Many years later, Bogodyne was founded to implement the ZetaLisp dialect on newer hardware. This resulted in the creation of Bogodyne ZetaLisp and the Bogodyne System built upon it. Bogodyne ZetaLisp and the Bogodyne System are derived from the final development versions of LMI ZetaLisp and the LMI System, which would have become LMI System 130.
The LMI System, and consequently the Bogodyne System, do not contain or incorporate any Symbolics intellectual property except that which was licensed back to MIT and LMI in the legal action mentioned previously. The Bogodyne System is not derived from Symbolics Genera and all similarity between the two is a result of their shared MIT heritage.