8/9/72   JONL  

1) SOME NEW STATUS CALLS
    A) (STATUS LISPVERSION) IS NOW NECESSARY, INSTEAD OF THE
	PREVIOUS DOCUMENTATION THAT SUGGESTED THAT THE VALUE OF THE
	ATOM LISPVERSION WOULD BE A PNAME-TYPE ATOM COMPRISED OF THE 
	CHARACTERS OF THE SECOND FILE NAME OF THE
	VERSION OF LISP USED TO CREATE THE RUNNING LISP.
    C) (STATUS UNAME) LETS YOU KNOW WHAT NAME YOU LOGGED IN UNDER 
	[MORE OR LESS]
    C) (STATUS JCL) OBTAINS AS A LIST OF SINGLE-OBJECT
	CHARACTERS THE JOB COMMAND LINE FROM DDT, IF THERE IS
	ONE, AND NIL OTHERWISE.  USEFUL FOR CREATING SYSTEMS
	THAT COULD TAKE AN ARGUMENT FROM DDT.  E.G. COMPLR
	NOW USES THIS FEATURE SO THAT THE CHARACTERS  OF THE JCL
	ARE FED TO MAKLAP JUST AS YOU WOULD TYPE THEM AFTER CALLING
	(MAKLAP).  THUS :COMPLR MOBY MESS
	IS ACCEPTABLE, AND WOULD COMPILE THE FILE MOBY MESS INTO 
	MOBY LAP ON THE DSK DIRECTORY OF THE  CURRENT SNAME 
    D) (STATUS CHRCT NIL), (STATUS LINEL NIL), (SSTATUS CHRCT NIL N), 
	AND (SSTATUS LINEL NIL N)  ARE IMPLEMENTED FOR COMPATIBILITY 
	WITH NLISP TO, TEST AND SET THE VALUES OF THE LINEL AND 
	CHARACTER COUNTER FOR THE TTY CHANNEL.
     E) (SSTATUS GCTIME NEWVALUE) IS NOT REALLY NEW, BUT WILL NOW 
	RETURN THE VALUE OF THE GCTIME COUNTER AS IT FOUND IT BEFORE 
	THE SETTING OF A NEW VALUE.  WORKS LIKE 
	(PROG2 NIL (STATUS GCTIME) (SSTATUS GCTIME NEWVALUE))

2) SOME NEW FUNCTIONS AND FEATURES FOR HACKING PDL FRAMES:
    A) EVALFRAME IS THE SAME FUNCTION  AS PDLFRAME, BUT I WOULD LIKE 
	TO SEE THE NAME "PDLFRAME" PHASED OUT, SINCE THE FRAME 
	RETURNED BY THIS FUNCTION IS FOR AN MARKED ENTRY TO EVAL.
	IF (*RSET T) HAS BEEN DONE, THE UPON ENTRY TO EVAL A SMALL 
	STACK OF ITEMS IS PUSHED ON THE REGULAR PDL;  THE FIRST 
	ELEMENT OF THE RETURND VALUE IS A PDL POINTER TO THE 
	BEGININING OF THIS STACK, AND HENCE JUST ONE PDL SLOT 
	BEYOND THE PDL POSITIONUPON THE ENTRYTO EVAL.
	[SEE NOTE OF 5/3/72, SECTION 7]
    B) ERRFRAME RETURNS A 3-LIST SIMILAR TO EVALFRAME, WHERE THE FIRST
	IS ELEMENT IS A PDL POINTER TO THE BEGINNNG OF THE STACK OF 
	GOODIES PUSHED ONTO THE PDL WHEN THE ERROR OCCURS; AND THE 
	SECOND ELEMENT IS AN ATOM COMPRISED OF THE CHARACTERS OF THE 
	MAIN PART OF THE ASSOCIATED ERROR MESSAGE.
    C) BOTH OF THE ABOVE FUNCTIONS NOW ACCEPT AN ARGUMENT WHICH SHOULD
	BE A PDL POINTER [I.E., A NEGATIVE FIXNUM IN THE APPROPRIATE
	RANGE], OR NIL MEANING THE PRESENT PDL POSITION, AND THE 
	INTENT IS TO START SEARCHING FOR THE FIRST ASSOCIATED STACK 
	OF GOODIES  [AN ERROR MARK FOR ERRFRAME, AND EVAL MARK FOR 
	EVALFRAME] PRIOR TO THAT PDL POINT.  HOWEVER, SOMETIMES WHEN 
	SEARCHING THE STACK, ONE GOES BACK TOO FAR, AND WOULD LIKE 
	TO SEARCH FORWARDS; THUS IF A LARGE POSITIVE FIXNUM IS GIVEN
	AS ARGUMENT, THEN IT IS ASSUMEND TO BE THE NEGATION OF
	SOME PDL POINTER, WHICH IT THEN USES TO START SEARCHING
	FORWARDS.  SIMILARLY, IF ZERIO IS GIVEN AS ARGUMENT, A 
	FORWARDS SEARCH IS INITIATED AT THE PDL BEGINNING [BOTTOM].
    D) BOTH BAKTRACE AND BAKLIST NOW ALLOW AN OPTIONAL ARGUMENT WHICH 
	IS INTERPRETED AS ABOVE FOR THE ARGUMENT TO EVALRFRAME AND 
	ERRFRAME.  HOWEVER, THERE IS NO SEARCH PHASE INVOLVED, AND 
	THE PRINTING, (OR BAKLISTING) ALWAYS PROCEEDS BACK UP THE PDL.

3) NVID AND NVFIX NOW RETURN 16384.0 AND 16384. [OCTAL 40000] ON THE 
	CONDITIONS OF DIM CUT OFF AND COUNTER UNDERFLOW.

4) ARGS IS NOW AN LSUBR.  GIVEN TWO ARGUMENTS, THE FIRST IS AN ATOM 
	ONTO WHICH AN ARGS PROPERTY IS TO BE PUT, AND THE SECOND IS 
	THE ARGS PROPERTY [WHICH WILL BE PLACED JUST BEFORE THE 
	PNAME PROPERTY].  A PREVIOUS NOTE DESCRIBES THE STRUCTURE OF 
	THE ARGS PROPERTY.  TO SAFEGUARD YOUR PROGRAMS AGAINST
	THE VAGARIES OF FUTURE CHANGES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS 
	FEATURE,  OR THE VAGARIES OF RUNNING UNDER MACLISP ON ANOTHER 
	COMPUTER, ONE SHOULD NOT USE (GET FOO 'ARGS), BUT RATHER 
	(ARGS FOO);  THIS LATER FORM ALLOWS FOR STORING THE ARGS 
	PROPERTY IS SOME MORE EFFICIENT FASHION THAN ON THE ATOM'S 
	PROPERTY LIST.


5) AS IT NOW OPERATES, LAP IS AN IN CORE ASSEMBLER AND RELOCATOR.
    THERE WILL SOON BE AN OPTIONAL VERSION THAT WILL ASSEMBLE A LAP 
    SOURCE FILE INTO A LAP RELOCATABLE FORMAT, WHICH A LINKING-LOADER
    VERSION OF LAP WILL BE ABLE TO LOAD IN.  WE EXPECT A CONSEQUENT 
    SAVINGS IN TIME WHEN THE LAP LINKING LOADER IS USED ON THE RELOC 
    FILE, AS OPPOSED TO USING THE LAP PROGRAM ON THE SOURCE FILE.