5/9/73 - JONL - ERRORS GENERATED BY THE DISPLAY SLAVE ARE NOW CORRECTABLE, FAIL-ACT TYPE. REMINDER: IF THE FAIL-ACT INTERRUPT HANDLER RETURNS A NON-NULL LIST, THEN THE CAR OF THAT LIST IS EVAL'D AND THE RESULTANT RETURNED AS THE VALUE OF THE FORM WHICH LOST; THE SYSTEM-SUPPLIED FAIL-ACT HANDLER IS A BREAK LOOP, AND IF ONE DESIRES TO PROCEED (ACCEPTING AN OUTPUT VALUE OF T) HE CAN TYPE (RETURN '(T)) TYPING <ALT-MODE>P<SPACE> IS THE SAME AS RETURNING NIL, WHICH CAUSES THE ERROR HANDLER TO GO THE ROUTE OF ALL UNCORRECTED ERRORS. THERE IS A MANUAL FOR THE MULTICS VERSION OF MACLISP IN THE PREPARATION. IT MAY PROVE TO BE OF MUCH USE EVEN TO THE PDP10 MACLISP USER. LISP WILL NOW ACCEPT A COMMAND LINE FROM DDT, IN THE FASHION OF THE HACTRN COMMAND LINE. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS LINE FOR LISP IS THAT IT IS USED TO SPECIFY A FILE FOR INITIAL LOADING, JUST AS THE .LISP. (INIT) FILE IS USED. THUS, THE FIRST S-EXPRESSION ON THE FILE MUST BE A COMMENT, WHOSE ALTERNATING PAIRS GIVE ALLOCATION REQUESTS; THE REMAINDER OF THE FILE MAY BE ANY S-EXPRESSIONS. FOR EXAMPLE, IF ONE HAS A FILE "INDEX LOADER" ON HIS DIRECTORY WHICH CONTAINS (COMMENT CORE 70 FXS 5000 FLPDL 1) (FASLOAD INDEX FASL COM) THEN WHEN HE TYPES AT DDT :LISP INDEX LOADER<CARRIAGE-RETURN> HE WILL FIND HIMSELF WITH A 70-BLOCK LISP (WITH A LITTLE EXTRA FIXNUM SPACE, AND A MINIMAL FLONUM PDL) WHICH HAS BEEN EMBELLISHED WITH THE LISP INDEXER. THE COMMAND LINE IS ALLOWED TO BE ANY ITS FILE SPECIFICATION, WITH DEFAULTING ON THE DEVICE TO BE DSK, AND DEFAULTING ON THE SNAME TO BE THAT SET BY HACTRN. REMINDER: THE FIRST ITEM OF AN ALTERNATING PAIR IN THE COMMENT FOR ALLOC IS SPELLED EXACTLY THE WAY ALLOC SPELLS IT WHEN IT TYPES THE QUESTIONS AT YOU; IF YOU WANT TO TRY IT, JUST TYPE "Y" TO THE QUESTION "ALLOC?" AND NOTE THE KINDS OF SPACES THAT ARE ASKED ABOUT.