Repository navigation
Conversation
Where possible replace references to documents with references to the item in the Interlisp Bibliography. Several items mentioned are currently missing from the Bibliography. When added we'll continue to update.
First step, update glossary to allow linking to individual items.
These updates map in the terms that are defined and the usage is the same between the two.
- Started adding new glossary entries: - Advise (Advising) - DWIM - History package - Prettyprint - Spaghetti stack - Structure editor - Trace - UNDO This is the first batch of terms, in the end I expect around four PRs. These terms focus on core environment and debugging. I tried to keep glossary entries focused on what the term is, its purpose. Anything that related to dates or people I pushed back into the timeline. A couple early entries I wrote started feeling like mini-timelines. I backed off that approach. You'll see some minor updates to the timeline reflecting some of the added details I found and captured.
| Medley provides a rich software development environment, including a debugger, a list structure editor, a file package, a compiler, text-editing facilities, and other useful tools. With any interactive computer language, the user interacts with the system through an "executive," which interprets and executes commands. Medley includes three such executives: Common Lisp, Xerox Common Lisp, and Interlisp. Medley is a programming system, containing not only a programming language but also many predefined programs and specialized programming tools. | ||
|
|
||
| Medley's interactive window-based *debugger* automatically appears when an error occurs. You can enter the debugger through a program execution error, a user-entered keyboard interrupt, or a programmer-specified break. When execution is halted for one of these reasons, the user can reset the system and unwind the stack, or enter the debugger. The break window is an executive window; you can perform any activity here that you can in other executive windows, including looking at the program's current state, changing data structures, evaluating expressions changing a function, and calling the editor. These break facilities, familiar to Interlisp users, are now in the common Lisp executive as well. | ||
| Medley's interactive window-based *debugger* automatically appears when an error occurs. You can enter the debugger through a program execution error, a user-entered keyboard interrupt, or a programmer-specified break. When execution is halted for one of these reasons, the user can reset the system and unwind the stack, or enter the debugger. The break window is an executive window; you can perform any activity here that you can in other executive windows, including looking at the program's current state, changing data structures, evaluating expressions changing a function, and calling the editor. These break facilities, familiar to Interlisp users, are now in the common Lisp executive as well. In Medley, TRACE is implemented as a special case of BREAK, and UNBREAK restores functions modified by BREAK, TRACE, or BREAKIN ([Medley Language Reference](/history/bibliography/zq6d9yhu/)). |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Incorrect capitalization: common Lisp -> Common Lisp
|
The branch hasn't been deployed to the staging site yet, apparently for a build failure. |
Merge error.
|
Staging preview for this pull request is available at https://interlisp.org/Interlisp.staging/pr-359/ |
|
Staging preview for this pull request is available at https://interlisp.org/Interlisp.staging/pr-359/ |
| : A facility for modifying an existing function without editing its definition by wrapping it with code that runs before or after the function and can inspect or change its arguments or return value. Also called advising. | ||
|
|
||
| <span id="altolisp"></span>AltoLisp | ||
| : An experimental microcoded implementation of Interlisp on an Alto personal computer. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
between the glossary and the internet timeline, the role of AltoLisp needs more explanation to make sense. At the time, there was a usable implementation of Smalltalk for the Alto. But the limitations of the alto in terms of memory and of microcode space made the Interlisp implementation unusuable.
I annotated some with suggestions but not all the anchored terms here. What do you think?
masinter
left a comment
masinter
left a comment
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Linking to the glossary seems like a good idea, but the glossary definitions of many of the terms are too terse to be useful (IMO).
I think a minimal expansion of the glossary to point at the timeline or other references would be really helpful.
Approving this PR
|
Staging preview for this pull request is available at https://interlisp.org/Interlisp.staging/pr-359/ |
|
@masinter Thanks for your feedback. I expanded the text a little more. Hopefully, not losing meaning and not being as terse. I'll admit to being conflicted on how much detail to place in the glossary entries. Part of me wants to continue to expand them to be deeper detailed definitions. And, maybe that should be a long term goal. For now, I'm shooting for correctness and sufficient detail to help give readers an idea of what the term is and its usefulness. Let me know if this is a little closer to your expectations. We can continue to iterate on these entries and reach a good place before I continue with the remaining entries that need to be defined. |
|
The expanded Group 1 glossary definitions of commit bae2923 look good. |
Step two in building out the glossary and timeline:
This is the first batch of terms, in the end I expect around four PRs.
These terms focus on core environment and debugging.
I tried to keep glossary entries focused on what the term is, its
purpose. Anything that related to dates or people I pushed back into
the timeline. A couple early entries I wrote started feeling like
mini-timelines. I backed off that approach.
You'll see some minor updates to the timeline reflecting some of the
added details I found and captured.