The newsletter Hotline was a support resource Xerox published in the late 1980s for users of Xerox Lisp (Interlisp and Common Lisp). It featured tutorials, usage tips, fixes, and more that are still valuable to Medley users.
#InterLisp
The Interlisp function COMPARELISTS compares the structures of two lists and prints a terse description of the differences which highlights the items that differ. More details are in the Interlisp Reference Manual.
I submited to Forgejo (and hence Codeberg) a feature request to support Interlisp source files but it may be hard to implement. So I'm stuck with GitHub for Interlisp code.
In the mid 1980s Xerox published Masterscope, a newsletter for Interlisp-D users which featured product updates, project showcases, tips, and more. Browsing through the issues gives an idea of the applications and domains Interlisp-D was used for.
☝️ The 6 windows that make up the GUI of DInfo, the documentation browser of Medley Interlisp.
The GUI of a Medley Interlisp program is often made from windows attached together or standalone, like the 6 windows (can you spot them?) of this documentation browser. To get the same setup select DInfo from the right-click background menu, then click Menu and History.
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In many cases, unification and simplification came only after considerable experience.
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Amen, brothers and sisters.
#Interlisp
#Lisp
#WorldSimplicityDay next month
DandeGUI, my GUI library for Medley Interlisp, can now send graphics output to windows.
https://journal.paoloamoroso.com/adding-graphics-support-to-dandegui
In the 1981 paper "The Interlisp Programming Environment" Warren Teitelman and @masinter explained the origins of the complexity of Interlisp tools and why the environment was designed for experts.
In the 1980s Xerox PARC taught courses on LOOPS (Lisp Object-Oriented Programming System), the object extension of Interlisp. The participants learned to develop knowledge systems in a simulation game called Truckin which is still available on Medley.
https://ojs.aaai.org/aimagazine/index.php/aimagazine/article/view/400
From Overview and Status of DoradoLisp under "Linguistic uniformity" on page 2:
An important sociological benefit of having a programming system described in the language it implements is that the system's implementors and users share the same culture.
The Interlisp library function RNUMBER displays a calculator-type dialog for entering a number with the mouse. This example accepts a floating point number (first T) and also keyboard input (second T).
More details in the documentation:
https://files.interlisp.org/medley/library/READNUMBER.TEDIT.pdf
Interlisp source files embed binary control codes for text formatting such as ^F^B for bold. GitHub renders the codes as boxes in browsers other than Firefox, which strips the codes. Here's a sample file:
https://github.com/pamoroso/braincons/blob/main/BRAINCONS
Codeberg thinks the sources are binary files and doesn't render them. The same file on Codeberg:
https://codeberg.org/amoroso/braincons/src/branch/main/BRAINCONS
I'd love to migrate my Interlisp code to @Codeberg but this is a showstopper.
On May 28, 2025 Eleanor Young will give the talk "The Medley Interlisp Project: Reviving a Historical Software System" at the 2025 IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering and Industry Summit (CCECE). She will discuss what other historical software recovery groups can learn from the Medley Interlisp Project.
We maintain a collection of references and quotes of what people are saying about Medley Interlisp. News stories, blog posts, online discussions, and social posts offering nice words and impressions of the system. Thanks to all!
You can use the Interlisp function SHOWGRAPH to display a graph of an S-exp laid out by LAYOUTSEXPR, as in this example of the syntax tree of a setence. More details in the documentation of the grapher library module of Medley:
A 1990 MSc dissertation on the theory and design of dialog boxes in GUIs. An overview of the field at the time, with examples also drawn from Interlisp-D such as the Trillium UI designer for Xerox copiers.
https://repository.rit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1105&context=theses
Published in 1987, "Xerox LOOPS, A Friendly Primer" is a concise tutorial to the LOOPS (Lisp Object-Oriented Programming System) object extension of Interlisp. Some chapters of this copy are in the wrong order but all the content is there.
Are you doing something interesting with Medley Interlisp such as coding, running programs, or learning the system? We'd love to hear what you're doing.
To display a simple yes/no dialog call the Interlisp function MENU to create a menu with the question as the title and two centered items for the answers, as in the example. MENU returns the selected item, i.e. symbol Yes here.
Client Info
Server: https://mastodon.social
Version: 2025.04
Repository: https://github.com/cyevgeniy/lmst