7/6/69 22:16 JONL LISP 105 HAS THE LONG AWAITED NEW READER, WHOSE MOST NOTABLE FEATURE IS CHARACTER-BY-CHARACTER RUBOUT FROM THE JOB CONSOLE. RUBOUTS AND NON-SLASHIFIED CONTROL CHARACTERS ARE IGNORED ON INPUT FROM TAPE OR DISK; SLASHIFIED CONTROL CHARACTERS TYPED ON THE TTY HAVE NO CONTROL EFFECT [MAYBE!!!]. A LIMITED PROGRAMMABLE SYNTAX FEATURE IS AVAILABLE FOR READ, TO BE DESCRIBED IN A FORTHCOMING COMPREHENSIVE DOCUMENT ON LISP IN GENERAL, AND PDP-6/10 LISP IN PARTICULAR. ALL SYNTAX PROPERTIES ARE UNDISTURBED IN THE STANDARD LISP, EXCEPT THE CHARACTER <SINGLE-QUOTE> WHICH HAS THE FOLLOWING FUNCTION: 'SEXP IN THE INPUT STRING, IS EQUIVALENT TO THE APPEARANCE OF (QUOTE SEXP) FOR ALL S-EXPRESSIONS SEXP. SUCH FUNCTION IS AN INSTANCE OF A MUCH MORE GENERAL SYNTAX ABILITY, FOR THE PRESENT CALLED "MACRO CHARACTERS". NOTE ALSO THAT THE OF-LATE-INFAMOUS SYNTAX PROPERTIES OF THE CHARACTERS + AND - ARE RESCINDED UNLESS THE USER RE-INSTATES THEM BY MEANS OF THE FUNCTION "SSTATUS" (SEE BELOW). THE USER MAY ALSO RESCIND THE MACRO PROPERTY OF <SINGLE-QUOTE> DESCRIBED ABOVE, OR DEFINE SIMILAR PROPERTIES FOR OTHER CHARACTERS. THE FUNCTION "*REARRAY" EXISTS FOR THE PURPOSE OF RE-DEFINING THE SPACE OCCUPIED BY AN ARRAY (OR EVEN ITS ACCESSING FUNCTION). THE ARGUMENTS ARE GIVEN TO "*REARRAY" EXACTLY AS TO "ARRAY", EXCEPT THAT *REARRAY IS AN LSUBR AND THE FIRST ARGUMENT IS EVALUATED. ALSO, THE FRIST ARG MUST HAVE ALREADY BEEN DECLARED AN ARRAY. IF ONLY THE ARRAY NAME IS GIVEN AS ARGUMENT, THEN IT IS DIS-ARRAYED. THE ALLOCATOR NOW PRINTS OUT THE DEFAULT ALLOCATIONS WHEN ONE ASKS TO ALLOCATE. FULL WORD SPACE IS ASSIGNED AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO ABOUT 1/64TH OF THE AMOUNT OF FREE STORAGE AVAILABLE; THEN ADDED TO THIS IS THE NUMBER ASSOCIATED WITH ALLOC TAG "FWS". "PDL" IS THE TAG FOR THE REGULAR PDL; "SPDL" IS FOR THE SPECIAL PDL. EXCEPT IN THE MINI-LISP (NOT YET AVAILABLE) AND IN NON-TS LISP, THE ALLOCATOR DOES NOT ASK FOR "BPS" (BINARY PROGRAM SPACE) SINCE THIS AREA IS SHARED WITH ARRAYS AND IS DYNAMICALLY HANDLED (SEE PREVIOUS DOCUMENTATION ON LISP INFO REGARDING NEW IMPLEMENTATION OF ARRAYS AND OF THE FUNCTION "RETSP"). ANY ATOM BREAK CHARACTER WILL SUFFICE TO TERMINATE NUMBERS TYPED AT THE ALLOCATOR, AND IF THE BREAKER IS <DECIMAL-POINT>, THEN THE NUMBER IS CONVERTED TO BASE TEN (RATHER THAN EIGHT). TYPING <CONTRO-G> WILL CAUSE THE ALLOCATOR TO RESTART. A FEATURE HAS BEEN IMPLEMENTED TO UTILIZE A KIND OF .LISP. (INIT) FILE IN THE USERS DSK FILE DIRECTORY BUT THE WHOLE STORY WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT BIG CHANGE IN LISP; USERS WHO MIGHT LIKE TO USE SOME SUCH FEATURE, PLEASE SEE JONL. FUNCTIONS CALLED "STATUS" AND "SSTATUS" ARE IMPLEMENTED TO AID IN QUERYING THE STATUS OF CERTAIN SYSTEM VARIABLES AND CONDITIONS, AND IS CHANGING OR SETTING THOSE CONDITIONS. A COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF FACILITIES WILL APPEAR IN THE FORTHCOMING COMPREHENSIVE LISP GUIDE - MANY FEATURES ARE NOT AVAILABLE IN ANY OTHER FASHION IN PREVIOUS LISPS, BUT SOME ARE INTENDED MERELY TO STOP THE PROLIFERATION OF ATOMS USED AS SYSTEM VARIABLES.