tendency in classical #Lisp is to use lists to represent everything, and then to browse them “by hand” using ‘car’, ‘cdr’, ‘cadr’, and co. There are several problems with that style, notably the fact that it is hard to read, error-prone, and a hindrance to proper type error reports.

#Glean code should define appropriate data types (for instance, using ‘define-record-type’) rather than abuse lists. In addition, it should use pattern matching, via #Guile’s (ice-9 match) module, especially when matching lists.

Using LLMs to chat with books and documents? That's so 1978.

In the 1970s the HELPSYS facility of Interlisp-10 let you interrogate the 700+ pages Interlisp Reference Manual via an English like syntax. You could run queries on topics and system functions such as TELL ME ABOUT EVAL or TELL ME ABOUT THE 2ND ARG OF CHANGEPROP and HELPSYS would print the relevant information or section of the manual. Here's an example session from the 1978 edition of the manual:

https://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/interlisp/Interlisp-Oct_1978.pdf#page=474

Interlisp-10 was the Interlisp implementation for the PDP-10.

#interlisp #documentation #lisp #retrocomputing

Thank you!
I found it in section 21.7.
[Of the Interlisp Reference Manual, 1974.]
The notation there is with asterisks.
Besides "circular", their terminology uses "reentrant", rather than "shared".

I find the speed at which such things historically evolved interesting.

#Lisp

@weekend_editor @screwlisp @BobKerns

Right, thanks.
Do you know off the top of your head
when Interlisp acquired specifically such markers for shared structure (circularity etc.)?
(Like Common Lisp's #n= and #n#, but I don't know its particular syntax.)

#Lisp

@amoroso @weekend_editor @screwlisp @BobKerns

This #live episode / interview will be more "interviewing a physicist" (at their request), though I will be watching for live questions/comments/responses in #lisp on #irc as well as in the usual moo room, but the VR will not be a central subject. Additional questions here please!

We will also talk about Olum's use of dictation software.

#MPI as well.

The git:
https://github.com/kdolum/cosmic-string-simulation
(Common lisp implemented) Simulation:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1011.4046

@dougmerritt @nosrednayduj @rwxrwxrwx

8pm Tuesday Boston time
#lispyGopherClimate#commonLisp #astrophysics #supercomputing#softwareEngineering #archive , https://communitymedia.video/w/9kysH4ZwVuP4J4erZozqFT we will have (now done) a live interview with

https://as.tufts.edu/physics/people/faculty/ken-olum

about the recent largest-ever cosmic string simulation also introducing their new spacetime-volume pseudo-parallel simulation technique, relating to gravitational backreaction.

People sometimes ask, "who uses common lisp today".

Olum learned #lisp from John McCarthy.

Web Embeddable Common Lisp is a project that brings Common Lisp and the Web Browser environments together

https://turtleware.eu/posts/Using-Common-Lisp-from-inside-the-Browser.html

#lisp #commonlisp #functionalprogramming

Just published the second edition of "LISP From Nothing" with a new chapter on Lambda Calculus that sheds light on the question if LAMBDA is enough to implement LISP. Also contains other minor additions and corrections. See the homepage for details.
http://t3x.org/lfn/index.html
#LISP

Just published the second edition of "LISP From Nothing" with a new chapter on Lambda Calculus that sheds light on the question if LAMBDA is enough to implement LISP. Also contains other minor additions and corrections. See the homepage for details.
http://t3x.org/lfn/index.html
#LISP

Re-reading "A Decision Procedure for Common Lisp's SUBTYPEP Predicate" by
Henry G. Baker again in preparation to finally add the CONS type specifiers to the procedure (most notably in ECL that implements this method). It is really cool and easy to follow paper.

#lisp #ecl

Thanks to @SDF I'm checking out Interlisp-10 under the TOPS-20 operating system (aka TWENEX) running on DECSYSTEM-20 hardware. Lots of fun.

https://twenex.org

Tutorials on Interlisp-10 and its structure editor:

https://wiki.twenex.org/tutorials:interlisp

https://papa.sdf.org/cave/twenex/interlisp-editor.html

#interlisp #lisp #retrocomputing

To edit a font on Medley Interlisp load and run the EDITFONT font editor like in the screenshot:

(FILESLOAD EDITFONT)
(EDITFONT '(TIMESROMAND 36 BOLD))

Left-click on a character to edit its bitmap, middle-click to bring up a menu.

#interlisp #lisp #fonts

I wrote a blog post that summarizes the current progress on Web Embeddable Common Lisp:

https://turtleware.eu/posts/Using-Common-Lisp-from-inside-the-Browser.html

This work is possible thanks to funding from @nlnet via @NGIZero program.

#lisp #ecl #webassembly