Author here. Lisp-Stat is no April's fool's joke. The project is real and only a coincidence that it was mentioned here shortly before 1st of April.
The Overview [1] and About [2] pages provide the best background to the project. Also see Tierney's paper, Back to the Future:
Lisp as a Base for a Statistical Computing System [3]
Although inspired by Tierney's XLisp-Stat, this is a reboot in Common Lisp. XLisp-Stat code is unlikely to run except in trivial cases, but existing XLisp-Stat libraries can be ported with the assistance of the XLS-Compat [4] system. One of the goals was to make porting easier so as to have a ready-made eco-system of sorts. To that end I've also collected all the XLS code that is still readily available and put that on github. A summary of what's there is available on the website [5].
In developing the system, I wanted to avoid the 'lisp curse' [6] and picked existing libraries where possible, developed what didn't exist, and documented them all in an attempt to make the learning curve somewhat less steep. It's now to the point where I can use it in my own work and thought the broader CL community might find it useful.
Your comment makes it seem like Tierney et al. only authored XLisp Stat, and you wrote a "reboot in Common Lisp" called Lisp Stat. That is not the case.
Tierney et al. authored both XLisp Stat and Lisp Stat. You took the code and modified it. There's nothing wrong with that, but you also present this modified code as Lisp Stat, a project "inspired" by XLisp Stat. You gave this code a new license, too.
I wonder what's the purpose of using "Lisp Stat" and "Symbolics" as project/company names, if not to mislead others. If that was not your intention, consider being more explicit about what is authored by you, and what is authored by others, and avoid using the same name for your project as that of the historical project.
The Overview [1] and About [2] pages provide the best background to the project. Also see Tierney's paper, Back to the Future: Lisp as a Base for a Statistical Computing System [3]
Although inspired by Tierney's XLisp-Stat, this is a reboot in Common Lisp. XLisp-Stat code is unlikely to run except in trivial cases, but existing XLisp-Stat libraries can be ported with the assistance of the XLS-Compat [4] system. One of the goals was to make porting easier so as to have a ready-made eco-system of sorts. To that end I've also collected all the XLS code that is still readily available and put that on github. A summary of what's there is available on the website [5].
In developing the system, I wanted to avoid the 'lisp curse' [6] and picked existing libraries where possible, developed what didn't exist, and documented them all in an attempt to make the learning curve somewhat less steep. It's now to the point where I can use it in my own work and thought the broader CL community might find it useful.
[1] https://lisp-stat.dev/docs/overview/
[2] https://lisp-stat.dev/about
[3] https://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~ihaka/downloads/Compstat-20...
[4] https://github.com/Lisp-Stat/XLS-compat
[5] https://lisp-stat.dev/docs/contributing/xlisp/
[6] http://www.winestockwebdesign.com/Essays/Lisp_Curse.html