Re: Are any Interlisp-D machine docs online?

[Bob Bane <address@hidden>]

"Peter J. Wasilko, Esq." wrote:
> 
> Are there any manuals or collections of screen shots from the Interlisp-d
> machines and their development environment that have been scanned in and
> mounted on the web?
> 
Venue still sells Medley, the fused Interlisp-D/Common Lisp system:

http://top2bottom.net/venue.html

> Even better would be to find a legally sanctioned emulator that doesn't
> require hunting down physical memory units from the original hardware.
> 
> In any case, I'd like to learn more about this vintage technology and have
> only seen tantalizing tid bits in contemporary Literature!
> 
You can download Medley with an application in it called the LFG Grammar
Writer's Workbench.  The home page for the application is
http://www2.parc.com/istl/groups/nltt/medley/, and the software is
available from a link off it at ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/lfg/. 
There is a license that says "for non-commercial use only".

Interlisp-D sysouts are byte-coded image files that can run straight-up
on D-machines, or be interpreted by an emulator on modern hardware.  The
workbench above is distributed as a sysout, and emulators are available
at the website for linux/x86, solaris/sparc, alpha, sgi, etc.  The
emulator in linux/intel ran for me on RedHat 7.1, though the meta key
didn't work - probably some screwball X keymap thing.

To get a flavor of how it all works, right-button in the background and
select EXEC/Xerox Common Lisp to get an XCL listener.  Type your
favorite small CL function into it, then type 'ed(name-of-function)' to
get an SEdit window.  Middle-button in the title bar of that window gets
you the SEdit command menu.

	- Bob Bane