KMP%MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP (08/03/83)
From: Kent M. Pitman <KMP @ MIT-MC>
They said it would never happen, but look for yourself...
The Revised Maclisp Manual
by Kent Pitman
Abstract
Maclisp is a dialect of Lisp developed at M.I.T.'s Project MAC (now
the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science) and the MIT Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory for use in artificial intelligence research
and related fields. Maclisp is descended from Lisp 1.5, and many
recent important dialects (for example Lisp Machine Lisp and NIL) have
evolved from Maclisp.
David Moon's original document on Maclisp, The Maclisp Reference
Manual (alias the Moonual) provided in-depth coverage of a number of
areas of the Maclisp world. Some parts of that document, however, were
never completed (most notably a description of Maclisp's I/O system);
other parts are no longer accurate due to changes that have occurred
in the language over time.
This manual includes some introductory information about Lisp, but is
not intended as tutorial. It is intended primarily as a reference
manual; particularly, it comes in response to users' pleas for more
up-to-date documentation. Much text has been borrowed directly from
the Moonual, but there has been a shift in emphasis. While the Moonual
went into greater depth on some issues, this manual attempts to offer
more in the way of examples and style notes. Also, since Moon had
worked on the Multics implementation, the Moonual offered more detail
about compatibility between ITS and Multics Maclisp. While it is hoped
that Multics users will still find the information contained herein to
be useful, this manual focuses more on the ITS and TOPS-20
implementations since those were the implementation most familiar to
the author.
The PitMANUAL, draft #14 May 21, 1983
Saturday Evening Edition
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Lisp, List Structure, Maclisp,
Programming Language, Symbol Manipulation
Ordering Information:
The Revised Maclisp Manual
MIT-LCS TR-295, $13.10
Publications
MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
545 Technology Square
Cambridge, MA 02139
About 300 copies were made. I don't know how long they'll last.
--kmp