My Encounter with Medley Interlisp

Re:My Encounter with Medley Interlisp by mark_l_watson on Sunday January 08, 2023 @02:02PM (#34301957)

I had a Xerox 1108 running Medley Interlisp (until I updated it to Common Lisp). Great memories, but I just can't get the same level of excitement running it on my MacBook in emulation mode. That said I 1000% appreciate the work that Larry and other people are doing to maintain it because it is my personal history.

I write a lot about Lisp languages (and I offer free mentoring, and people often ask for Lisp advice) and for most people I actually recommend Racket Scheme as an introduction since it is a batteries included instant install on most platforms and the supplied IDE is pretty good. If anyone gets really interested in using Lisp, the big job is deciding which language and implementation to use. I love Common Lisp (LispWorks, SBCL+Emacs), Scheme (Gerbil, Chez, Gambit), and Haskell (which for some weird reason I think of as a Lisp language).

Sadly, I have none of my old Medley Interlisp code that I did in the early 1980s (I searched my old paperwork looking for program listings - no luck). I thought of writing up a short 50 page "tutorial and fun projects" book on Medley Interlisp, but the idea of starting over from scratch is daunting.

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Re:My Encounter with Medley Interlisp by pamoroso on Sunday January 08, 2023 @02:15PM (#34302092)

I wrote the linked post, I'm glad it brought up some good memories. I'd definitely buy your book.

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Re:My Encounter with Medley Interlisp by mikelevins on Sunday January 08, 2023 @04:01PM (#34303059)

I was in Weird Stuff Warehouse in Santa Clara in about 1990 and they had three fully kitted-out 1108s sitting on the floor for about $600 each, with software and manuals and so forth. I went home to deal with something or other, intending to come back and get one, but by the time I returned they were gone. They never had one again when I was there.

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