@tristanC I don't know how to estimate the lines of code, which is tricky also becose many lines are not wrapped.
As for binaries the latest x86_64 .deb package is about 90 MB, which comprises the virtual memory emulator and a number of prebuilt virtual memory files (Lisp images).
@amoroso I (almost) never used Interlisp. Does it have a kernel? Is there userspace/kernelspace/syscalls? How does Interlisp programs communicate with the outside world?
@iacore There's no separate kernel and no distinction between spaces in Interlisp. User code can call and run alongside low level system code, with no separation.
Communication with the outside world is primarily via the network. But the network stack is currently not fully functioning and needs work.
Medley today runs on many posix operating systems using as little of the underlying OS as possible.
But we get a lot done using "process streams" including GITFNS (a utility that was developed to support Lisp diffs for pull request review).
Network support XNS protocols works using the "Dodo" XNS emulator, but ironically, TCP support in Maiko was "modernized" to use SunOS syscalls. Similarly, there was an NFS implementation but only an early incompatible NFS.
@iacore There's no such network as IPC happens via ordinary Lisp function calls.
Medley runs also on x86_64. But I'm not sure Maiko, its virtual machine emulator, has a general purpose FFI to call Assembly or system libraries beyond whatever functionality it requires from the host operating system.
XNS network COURIER protocol was used, for machine to machine communication, e.g., Truckin, the LOOPS learning game used courier protocol for Lisp machine to machine communication.
@frescosecco Medley's level of support for Common Lisp is somewhere between CLtL1 and CLtL2, plus CLOS via PCL. A lot of the system contains Common Lisp code under the hood, including Interlisp functionality.
@amoroso@ksaj@frescosecco
I remember there's also the notion that interlisp is more specialised than common lisp, such as the centrality of conversation lisp and DWIMification so that the main mission is to bring lisp from common lisp into interlisp, from which it basically couldn't return.
@screwtape Interlisp can seamlessly call Common Lisp and the other way around. However, the integration of Common Lisp into the Interlisp environment (e.g. the File Package) isn't complete, as this work was still under way when Medley wound down as a commercial product.
@amoroso@frescosecco Interlisp itself was implemented in the underlying virtual machine. The VM was extended in relatively minor ways (packages) but (EQ 'CL:CONS 'IL:CONS) and EQ and CAR and LIST, but a new compiler, EVAL, READ.
@charliemac Interlisp has its own graphical interface which dates back to its Xerox PARC days since the 1970s. In fact it was among the first graphical interfaces and largely predates CLIM, which was developed independently in the late 1980s.
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