9/24/69 - JONL THE LONG-AWAITED "FAST" NUMBER SCHEME IS IMPLEMENTED AND WILL MAKE ITS DEBUT IN THE NEXT NEW LISP, PROBABLY TO BE NUMBER 120. THE MAJOR NON-COMPATIBLE CHANGE IS IN THE REPRESENTATION OF NUMBERS; NO LONGER ARE THEY ATOMIC STRUCTURES IN FREESTORAGE WHOSE CDDR IS A POINTER INTO FULL WORD SPACE, BUT RATHER THEY ARE POINTERS DIRECTLY INTO FULL WORD SPACE. "INUM"S STILL ARE USED FOR REPRESENTING INTEGERS LESS THAN ABOUT 5000., BUT THIS KLUDGE MAY GO AWAY IN FAVOR OF UNIFORMITY. "ATOM" IS STILL TRUE FOR NUMBERS, AND FULL WORD SPACE IS FURTHER SUBDIVIDED INTO A FIXNUM AREA AND A FLONUM AREA. HOWEVER, ONE SHOULD NOT COUNT ON THIS DIVISION OF MEMORY REMAINING FOR VERY LONG, SINCE I HAVE A PLAN TO INCORPORATE ALL THREE AREAS INTO ONE HOMOGENEOUS SPACE WITH FULL WORDS DISTINGUISHED BY SOME EXTRA BITS. SINCE LAP USES SOME EXPR CODE WHICH IS DEPENDENT ON THE REPRESENTATION OF NUMBERS, IT WILL BE NECESSARY TO USE THE NEW LAP TO BE SUPPLIED AT THE SAME TIME AS THE APPEARANCE OF LISP 120, PROBABLY THIS WILL HAVE LAP NUMBER 17; IF THERE ARE ANY OTHER PROGRAMS AROUND WHICH REALLY DEPEND ON THE INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF BIG FIXNUMS OR FLONUMS, THEY WILL HAVE TO BE MODIFIED. BE PREPARED! ANOTHER INCOMPATIBLE CHANGE IS IN THE CALL TO PLOTLIST; THE FIRST ARGUMENT IS NOT JUST AN ARRAYNAME, BUT A LIST OF SPECIAL ARRAY CELLS, IDENTICAL TO THE FORM OF THE DISLIST. THE SECOND (OPTIONAL) ARGUMENT REMAINS UNAFFECTED. THUS ONE COULD SAY "(PLOTLIST DISLIST)". THE FUNCTION IPL HAS GONE AWAY, AND IN FACT IS NO LONGER NEEDED. THE SUBR "PLOT" EXPECTS ITS ARGUMENT TO FOLLOW THE NEW SPECINER CONVENTION AS POSTED ABOVE THE PLOTTER MACHINE AND RECORDED IN DSK:MS;IPL DESC THE SUBR "PLOTTEXT" HAS BEEN ADDED TO PLOT THE CHARACTERS OF THE ARGUMENT AS THEY WOULD BE "PRINC"ED OUT. TWO NEW OPTIONS ARE AVAILABLE UNDER THE FUNCTION "STATUS" - (STATUS TIME) RETURNS A LIST OF THREE NUMBERS TO BE INTERPRETED AS HOURS, MINUTES, AND SECONDS OF THE DAY'S TIME; (STATUS DATE) RETURNS A 3-LIST OF THE YEAR, MONTH, AND DAY AS NUMBERS. IN EACH CASE, IF ITS CANNOT DETERMINE THE REQUIRED INFORMATION, NIL IS RETURNED. THE LSUBR "MACDMP" WILL ACCEPT A LITERAL ATOM AS AN ARGUMENT, AND GIVE THE STRING OF CHARACTERS OF ITS PNAME TO DDT TO BE EXECUTED AS A COMMAND STING. IT WILL ALSO CAUSE A LOGOUT IF THE JOB IN WHICH IT IS CALLED IS DISOWNED. EXAMPLE: (MACDMP (QUOTE ///.)) THREE FUNCTIONS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE LAP GROUP IN ORDER TO FACILITATE COMMUNICATION WITH DDT: "GETDDTSYM" RETURNS THE DDT SYMBOL TABLE VALUE OF ITS ARGUMENT, "PUTDDTSYM" MAKES AN ENTRY INTO THE DDT SYMBOL TABEL, AND "GETMIDASOP" DECODES A SYMBOL AS AN OPERATION IF IT IS ONE. "PUTDDTSYM" RETURNS T, AND THE OTHERS RETURN NIL IF THEY FAIL. EXAMPLES: (GETDDTSYM (QUOTE LISPGO)) (PUTDDTSYM (QUOTE FOOBAR) 105) (GETMIDASOP (QUOTE HRRZ)) THE S-EXPRESSION EDITING SYSTEM OF TOM BINFORD IS NOW A REGULAR PART OF THE SYSTEM. A MEMO SHOULD BE COMING OUT SOON ON ITS USE; IT IS VERY MUCH LIKE USING TECO WHILE IN LISP. A LOT OF MINOR GLITCHES HAVE BEEN REPAIRED, BAKTRACE IS A LOT MORE MEANINGFUL, AND FEWER KINDS OF ERRORS ARE IN THE "UNRECOVERABLE" CATEGORY WHICH CANNOT BE ERRSET. ALSO, LISP HAS BEEN PUT INTO PURE PROCEDURE FORM SO THAT WHEN THE NEW PAGING SCHEME IS IMPLEMENTED IN THE HARDWARE, THERE WILL NEED TO BE ONLY ONE LISP SYSTEM RESIDENT IN CORE, WITH EACH USER HAVING HIS PRIVATE MEMORY FOR STORAGE CELLS AND FREESTORAGE.