It's 1986 and you want to use Interlisp-D on your Xerox workstation. This primer will get you up to speed with booting a Lisp image, handling floppy disks, using the mouse, transferring files to a VAX, and interacting with the environment. Some of the material is obsolete but gives an idea of what it was like to use a Lisp Machine in the 1980s.
#interlisp
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The Common Lisp implementation of Medley Interlisp is closer to CLtL1 than ANSI but does support the condition system. The CONDITIONGRAPH tool shows the hierarchy graph of conditions.
If you use or tried running Medley Interlisp, what things did you discover later on that you wish you knew? We would appreciate your feedback.
Codeberg @Codeberg doesn't currently detect and display Interlisp sources, which it handles as binary files. I submitted a feature request for adding Interlisp support to Forgejo:
https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/issues/8184
The developers started working on the feature and merged a pull request:
https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/pulls/8377
Thanks Forgejo and Codeberg!
Codeberg.orgfeat: Render Interlisp sources as text### Needs and benefits
[Interlisp](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlisp) source files embed binary control codes for syntax highlighting such as `^F^B` for turning on bold. Codeberg treats theese sources as binary files, doesn't render them, and only allows to download the files as [this exam...
We now take it for granted but adding a display to a copying machine was a novel idea in the early 80s. In this 1984 video Austin Henderson told the history of and demoed Trillium, an Interlisp environment for designing and prototyping user interfaces for Xerox copier control panels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXwzh1Q2GeQ
Trillium was actually more versatile as Henderson used the system to run the slideshow in this presentation. See also:
It would seem odd today but the 1986 edition of the Lafite manual had an appendix on email etiquette:
Using Lafite Courteously
https://files.interlisp.org/medley/library/lafite/docs/users-guide/LAFITEMANUAL-APPENDIXA.TEDIT.pdf
The full manual of Lafite, the email system of Medley Interlisp:
https://files.interlisp.org/medley/library/lafite/docs/users-guide
The TEdit WYSIWYG editor of Medley Interlisp has a split window mode that shows different parts of a document. To split at the cursor or unsplit, middle-click on the title bar and select Split Window or Unsplit Window.
I'm putting together a reading list on Xerox Network Systems (XNS), the network architecture developed at PARC and Xerox which influenced TCP/IP.
I'd like to learn more to play with the network functionality of Medley Interlisp based on XNS. Medley's TCP/IP stack is currently incomplete and not working.
https://ftpmirror.your.org/pub/misc/bitsavers/pdf/xerox/xns/XNSG058504_XNS_Introduction.pdf
A 1988 demonstration of the Cognoter collaborative brainstorming tool in Interlisp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzBj13OSVzM
It was an application of project Colab at Xerox PARC to study how computers could support face-to-face-meetings. The researchers designed a conference room with specialized equipment such as a touch sensitive projection screen and collaboration software in Interlisp running on networked workstations.
About Colab:
In the Medley Interlisp documentation and literature the word "button" was used as a verb for mouse gestures for which we would now say "click". For example:
"Left-buttoning the display window updates it, and middle-buttoning the window brings up a menu that allows you to change the display state."
Someone should write some #MIT #CADR microcode and supporting code to make it possible to run #Interlisp / #Medley on the #MIT #LispMachine #LispM
Don't mind me, I'm just poking around this newfangled OOP thing with LOOPS on Medley Interlisp. LOOPS (Lisp Object-Oriented Programming System) is the object extension of Interlisp.
DIRGRAPHER is a Medley Interlisp tool that shows graphical directory trees and provides file management commands. It's part of the LispUsers collection of user contributed software.
Medley Interlisp 專案：重現歷史性軟體系統
➤ 復興歷史軟體，保存計算機科學的記憶
✤ https://interlisp.org/documentation/young-ccece2025.pdf
Medley Interlisp 專案旨在復原、保存並開發 Interlisp，這是 Interlisp 的最終版本。該專案目標是使其能在現代作業系統和硬體環境上運行，並加入現代功能，同時保留其作為開創性系統的歷史價值。本文描述了該專案過去五年來的運作、決策過程以及在將歷史軟體系統還原到現代計算環境中所遇到的獨特問題。專案的經驗將為其他類似的長期歷史軟體復原專案提供藍圖。
+ 這真是令人印象深刻的專案！能將如此古老的軟體系統帶回現代，不僅對歷史研究有幫助，也可能為現代軟體開發帶來啟發。
+ 我對 Interlisp 的「Do-What-I-Mean」系統很感興趣，這種自動修正錯誤的功能在當時非常先進，現在的 IDE 也有類似的功能，但似乎還沒有達到 Interlisp 的水平。
#軟體復原 #歷史計算機 #Interlisp
The Medley Interlisp Project: Reviving a Historical Software System [pdf]
Replied to The Medley Interlisp Project
@interlisp 
This is the untold story of the Medley Interlisp project, so to speak. The paper describes the unique issues and challenges faced in reviving the system over the first 5 years of the project, and what other software preservation groups can learn from this experience.
We are happy to share the preprint and slides of the paper "The Medley Interlisp Project: Reviving a Historical Software System" by Eleanor Young et al.:
https://interlisp.org/documentation/young-ccece2025.pdf
https://interlisp.org/documentation/young-ccece2025-slides.pdf
It tells the first 5 years of the Medley Interlisp Project and discusses what other historical software recovery groups can learn from our experience. The paper was presented at IEEE CCEECE 2025 in Vancouver and accepted for publication.
Replied in thread
@jackdaniel @NGIZero h'mmm ... Yesterday, not for the first time, I was looking at reimplementing #InterLisp's GRAPHER library in #Clojure. It's doable, but surprisingly difficult. If there was a good Java SVG engine which allowed callbacks through JavaScript or whatever, it would be easier, and *possibly* Batik may do that.
But #CommonLisp in the browser, interacting with SVG in the browser... Now that sounds fun.
The LOOPS primer, published in 1987, captured well the essence of exploratory programming in Lisp:
The LOOPS interface provides both a programming tool and a thinking tool. As you develop a new system, each preliminary version provides an object for thought and discussion. The preliminary versions are a crucial part of the design process.
LOOPS (Lisp Object-Oriented Programming System) is the OOP extension of Interlisp.
Fugue, Interlisp-360, Lcom, XEOS.
These are some of the terms, names, and organizations in our Glossary. It's a useful resource for getting your way around Medley Interlisp. Any other terms you'd like to see defined?
The Medley Interlisp ProjectGlossaryThe names “Medley,” “Interlisp-D,” “Interlisp.org,” “Common Lisp,” etc. are often used in confusing ways. We’re talking about a lot of different things that evolved over decades. These are cemented in by usage in different publications over time. We hope this glossary of terms will help.
Vocabulary and relationships AltoLisp An (unsuccessful) attempt to build a Lisp-based OS for running Interlisp on an Alto. Carol, Fugue, Harmony, Intermezzo, Koto, Lyric, Medley Named releases of Interlisp-D. All are obsolete except Medley. Common Lisp The subject of a 10-year standards process to converge multiple dialects of the Lisp language. Strong influences from many Lisp dialects, including Interlisp. Common Lisp the Language Book by Guy Steele with two editions: CLtL1 – edition 1, 465 pages CLtL2 – second edition, 1029 pages Common Lisp dpANS The ANSI Standard for Common Lisp. Starting with the Lyric release of Interlisp-D and then the Medley release, the implementation of Medley included implementations of Common Lisp (CLtL 1) as well as the Interlisp dialect in a single development environment; this was made possible by using the (Common Lisp) “package” feature to allow both dialects to be intermixed.