# Lucid Inc. > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Lucid_Inc. > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Lucid_Inc..md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_Inc. > Source revision: 1356799347 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) This article is about the 1984-1994 software company. For other companies, see [Lucid (disambiguation)](/source/Lucid_(disambiguation)). This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Lucid Inc." – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2026) (Learn how and when to remove this message) Lucid Inc. Industry Software industry Founded 1984; 42 years ago (1984) Defunct 1994; 32 years ago (1994) Fate Bankruptcy (1994) Headquarters Menlo Park, California, Key people Richard P. Gabriel, Scott Fahlman, Rodney Brooks Products Lucid Common Lisp, Energize, Lucid Emacs **Lucid Incorporated** was a [Menlo Park](/source/Menlo_Park%2C_California), [California](/source/California)-based computer [software](/source/Software) development company. Founded by [Richard P. Gabriel](/source/Richard_P._Gabriel)[1] in 1984, it went bankrupt in 1994. ## History The first [CEO](/source/CEO) was [Tony Slocum](/source/Tony_Slocum), formerly of [IntelliCorp](/source/IntelliCorp_(Software)); and Gabriel was Lucid's Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and first president. ### Initial success The product the company ultimately shipped was an integrated Lisp [IDE](/source/Integrated_development_environment) for [Sun Microsystems](/source/Sun_Microsystems)' [RISC](/source/RISC) hardware architecture—this sidestepped the principal failure of [Lisp machines](/source/Lisp_machine) by in essence rewriting a lesser version of the Lisp machine IDE for use on a more cost-effective and less moribund architecture. In 1987, Gabriel resigned as President, but remained its CTO. ### Decline Eventually Lucid's focus shifted (during the [AI Winter](/source/AI_Winter)) from the Lisp market (which was still growing at this time) to an [object-oriented](/source/Object-oriented_programming) IDE for [C++](/source/C%2B%2B) called "Energize". A core component of the IDE was [Richard Stallman](/source/Richard_Stallman)'s version of [Emacs](/source/Emacs), [GNU Emacs](/source/GNU_Emacs). GNU Emacs was not suitable for Lucid's needs, however, and several Lucid programmers (including [Jamie W. Zawinski](/source/Jamie_Zawinski)) were assigned to help develop GNU Emacs to meet those needs. Friction arose between the programmers and Stallman, and Lucid forked the software—thus they were primarily responsible for the birth of [XEmacs](/source/XEmacs).[2] By 1994, Lucid's attempts to reinvent itself as a C++ company, and its neglect of its still profitable Lisp sideline had ended in failure, and the company's revenues fell to levels which could not sustain it. Lucid Incorporated went [bankrupt](/source/Bankrupt).[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] The rights to Lucid Common Lisp were sold to [Harlequin Ltd.](/source/Harlequin_Ltd.) which was bought in 1999 by [Global Graphics](/source/Global_Graphics); Global Graphics then sold the rights to [Xanalys Corporation](/source/Xanalys), which spun off [LispWorks](/source/LispWorks), the current rights holder which sells Lucid Common Lisp under the "Liquid Common Lisp"[3] label. ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Steele, Guy L.; Gabriel, Richard P. (1996), Bergin, Thomas J.; Gibson, Richard G. (eds.), ["The evolution of Lisp"](http://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/234286.1057818), *History of programming languages---II*, New York, NY, USA: ACM, pp. 233–330, [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1145/234286.1057818](https://doi.org/10.1145%2F234286.1057818), [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-201-89502-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-201-89502-5), retrieved 2023-05-02{{[citation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Citation)}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN ([link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:CS1_maint:_work_parameter_with_ISBN)) 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Zawinski, Jamie (2000). ["The Lemacs/FSFmacs Schism"](https://www.jwz.org/doc/lemacs.html). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20091130093142/http://www.jwz.org/doc/lemacs.html) from the original on 2009-11-30. Retrieved 2009-12-12. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Liquid Common Lisp"](http://www.lispworks.com/products/lcl.html). Lispworks.com. Retrieved 2013-06-10. ## External links - [*Patterns of Software*](http://dreamsongs.com/Files/PatternsOfSoftware.pdf)- a collection of essays by Gabriel, including some memoirs about Lucid (pdf) - ["Letter to Chris DiBona and Tim O'Reilly"](http://www.dreamsongs.com/DiBona-OReillyLetter.html)—(Open letter by Gabriel written about the XEmacs fork in response to the description of the fork in [Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution](/source/Open_Sources%3A_Voices_from_the_Open_Source_Revolution) [Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution](http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/toc.html)) - [Collection of Lucid's Source Code](https://archive.org/details/archiveteam-lucid-collection) — Includes Lucid Common Lisp, Energize (incomplete), Lucid Emacs. --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Lucid Inc.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_Inc.) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_Inc.?action=history)). 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