@interlisp.org
Official account of the open source project to preserve, revive, and modernize Medley Interlisp. This extensible graphical operating and programming environment has roots in Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). https://interlisp.org
The FAQ of Medley Interlisp answers some basic questions on using the system such as whether clipboard support is available, how to get online help, large displays, and more.
interlisp.org/project/faqs
#interlisp #lisp
This 1984 paper introduced the basic ideas of programming with objects in various languages with examples from LOOPS, the Lisp Object-Oriented Programming System of Interlisp.
ojs.aaai.org/aimagazine/i...
ojs.aaai.org/aimagazine/i...
#OOP #interlisp #retrocomputing
Screenshot of the black and white desktop of a 1980s graphical workstation environment. The desktop has a grey background pattern and some windows with a white background and a title bar with white text on a black background. The main window shows the online documentation of the Lisp function APPEND.
To consult the Medley Interlisp documentation execute MAN <query> at the Lisp prompt where <query> is the name of a Lisp function, form, topic, or library module. Try:
MAN APPEND
MAN WINDOWS
MAN FILEBROWSER
MAN PACMAN
#interlisp #lisp
Gacha, the default font of Medley Interlisp, was one of the original fonts of the Xerox Alto workstation at PARC.
bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/xerox/al...
www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/al...
#interlisp #fonts #retrocomputing
Screenshot of a portion of the black and white desktop of a 1980s graphical workstation environment. The desktop has a grey background pattern and one window with a white background and a title bar with white text on a black background. The window shows a graph laid down horizontally of an object-oriented class hierarchy rooted at a class called Tofu.
The highest class of the LOOPS hierarchy is called Tofu, an acronym for "Top of the universe". The Lisp Object-Oriented Programming System (LOOPS) is the object extension of Interlisp.
#oop #interlisp #lisp
What strategies can be employed to describe a problem and converge on an appropriate hypertext representation? This 1987 paper explored such representation issues with NoteCards, the hypermedia system written in Interlisp.
dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1...
#hypertext #NoteCards #interlisp #retrocomputing
Modern Medley Interlisp provides support for the system clipboard as described in the linked documentation page.
The Meta key is usually the Alt key or equivalent on modern systems. Clipboard support requires the xclip program on Linux.
files.interlisp.org/medley/libra...
#interlisp #lisp
Screenshot of the black and white desktop of a 1980s graphical workstation environment. The desktop has a grey background pattern and some windows with a white background and a title bar with white text on a black background. The main window is a VT100 terminal emulator running the Lynx web browser on Linux open on the site https://interlisp.org At the left of the terminal is a window showing a virtual VT100 keypad.
Visiting interlisp.org with the Lynx web browser on Medley Interlisp. The main window is a VT100 terminal emulator running Lynx on the host operating system, Linux in this case. The smaller window next to the terminal is a VT100 keypad.
#interlisp #LynxBrowser #lisp
The Interlisp glossary lists some more terms.
interlisp.org/history/glos...
The original documentation and literature of Interlisp-D used the verb "to button" like today we say "to click", i.e. meaning to press a mouse button.
#interlisp #retrocomputing
The manual of EMYCIN, a rare document published in 1981, is now available at Bitsavers. Developed in Interlisp at Stanford University, the EMYCIN expert system shell was derived from the early expert system MYCIN.
bitsavers.org/pdf/stanford...
#ai #ExpertSystem #interlisp #retrocomputing
Please note that this version of Medley is old and partially broken.
2/2
We posted the manual of Medley Interlisp for MS-DOS originally published in 1993:
github.com/Interlisp/DO...
To run Medley for MS-DOS on DOSBox-X and QEMU see:
github.com/orgs/Interli...
github.com/Interlisp/me...
1/2
#interlisp #msdos #retrocomputing
Screenshot of a portion of the black and white desktop of a 1980s graphical workstation environment. The desktop has a grey background pattern and two windows with a white background and a title bar with white text on a black background. The bottom window is a Lisp REPL where the following expressions are evaluated, output printed, and values returned: 2/4_ (SETQ LIST.STRUCTURE (LIST 1 2 3 4 5)) (1 2 3 4 5) 2/5_ (ED 'LIST.STRUCTURE) Editing VARS definition of LIST.STRUCTURE. LIST.STRUCTURE 2/6_ LIST.STRUCTURE (1 2 3 (A B C) 4 5) The top window is an editor that shows a Lisp list structure modified by the above call to the ED function.
The SEdit structure editor of Medley Interlisp lets you also modify arbitrary list structures and data, not just Lisp code. In this example the ED function calls SEdit and returns the modified object.
#interlisp #lisp
We posted the manuals of the TEdit WYSIWYG editor and the Sketch drawing program of Medley Interlisp. Although originally published in 1987, most of the material still aplies to modern Medley.
files.interlisp.org/medley/libra...
files.interlisp.org/medley/libra...
#interlisp #lisp #retrocomputing
Interlisp-D releases were named after words related to music starting with successive letters such as Carol, Fugue, Harmony, Intermezzo, Koto, and Lyric. Medley was the last before work on the system petered out in the 1990s.
#interlisp #lisp #retrocomputing
Our 2025 annual presents the work we did last year to revive Medley Interlisp and its ecosystem. We would appreciate it if you could share the report, which may be of interest to potential users and other software preservation projects.
#interlisp #lisp #retrocomputing
In 1985 Xerox announced support for Prolog on its workstations and awarded development to Quintus for Xerox Quintus Prolog for Interlisp-D.
www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/in...
softwarepreservation.computerhistory.org/prolog/#Quin...
#ai #prolog #interlisp #retrocomputing
We published the latest Medley Interlisp Annual Report, a summary of the work of 2025. Last year marked the fifth anniversary of the project and the report was an opportunity to reflect on what we achieved.
interlisp.org/project/stat...
#interlisp #lisp #retrocomputing
ILsee is a Common Lisp GUI tool for viewing Interlisp source files.
journal.paoloamoroso.com/an-interlisp...
#interlisp #CommonLisp #lisp #McCLIM
The 1984 episode of Computer Chronicles on Artificial Intelligence also featured a demonstration of Dipmeter Advisor, an oil drilling expert system for Interlisp-D.
#ai #interlisp #ExpertSystem #retrocomputing
The 1984 Artificial Intelligence episode of the Computer Chronicles show featured demonstrations of some Interlisp applications: the ONCOCIN expert system and the Knowledge Engineering Environment expert system shell.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3m...
#ai #interlisp #ExpertSystem #retrocomputing
Screenshot of a portion of the black and white desktop of a 1980s graphical workstation environment. The desktop has a grey background pattern and one window with a white background and a title bar with white text on a black background. The window is a Lisp REPL where the following expressions are evaluated, output printed, and values returned: 2/5_ (SETQ STACK '()) NIL 2/6_ (PUSH STACK 1) (1) 2/7_ (PUSH STACK 2) (2 1) 2/8_ (PUSH STACK 3) (3 2 1) 2/9_ (PUSH STACK 4) (4 3 2 1) 2/10_ (PUSH STACK 5) (5 4 3 2 1) 2/11_ (POP STACK) 5 2/12_ (POP STACK) 4 2/13_ STACK (3 2 1)
In Interlisp PUSH and POP manipulate stacks represented as lists and work like the corresponding Common Lisp macros, but PUSH swaps the order of the arguments.
interlisp.org/documentatio...
#interlisp #CommonLisp #lisp
Published in 1978, this paper by Erik Sandewall is one of the best introductions to the Interlisp environment and development style. It doesn't cover the graphical Interlisp-D system but the material still applies to Medley Interlisp.
dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1...
#interlisp #lisp
On November 16, 2023 Steve Kaisler gave the talk “Software Archaeology: The Medley Interlisp Modernisation Project” at a London event of the Computer Conservation Society.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcRs...
#interlisp #lisp #retrocomputing
The Software Preservation Group at the Computer History Museum compiled a list and bibliography of Interlisp implementations. Did you know that Interlisp also ran on IBM 360/370 mainframes?
softwarepreservation.computerhistory.org/LISP/interli...
#interlisp #lisp #retrocomputing
In 1965 Peter Deutsch wrote a structure editor for LISP 1.5 which Daniel Bobrow and Warren Teitelman extended and ported to BBN Lisp. It eventually became the Interlisp structure editor.
softwarepreservation.computerhistory.org/LISP/bbnlisp...
#interlisp #lisp #editor #retrocomputing
A demonstration of defining a Lisp function with the SEdit structure editor of an old version of Medley Interlisp.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qsm...
#interlisp #lisp #editor
Screenshot of a portion of the black and white desktop of a 1980s graphical workstation environment. The desktop has a gray background pattern and one window with a white background and a title bar with white text on a black background. The window is a Lisp REPL where the following expressions are evaluated, output printed, and values returned: 2/4_ (PUTPROP 'WHEN 'MACRO '(ARGS (LIST 'COND (CONS (CAR ARGS) (CDR ARGS))))) (ARGS (LIST (QUOTE COND) (CONS (CAR ARGS) (CDR ARGS)))) 2/5_ (GETPROP 'WHEN 'MACRO) (ARGS (LIST (QUOTE COND) (CONS (CAR ARGS) (CDR ARGS)))) 2/6_ (SETQ FOO 3) 3 2/7_ (EXPANDMACRO '(WHEN (GREATERP FOO 2) (PRINT "Greater.") T)) (COND ((GREATERP FOO 2) (PRINT "Greater.") T)) NIL 2/8_ (WHEN (GREATERP FOO 2) (PRINT "Greater.") T) "Greater." T
An example of one way of defining, expanding, and calling an Interlisp macro similar to WHEN of Common Lisp. Macro definitions are represented by lists stored on the property list of a symbol. Here ARGS is bound to the CDR of the calling form.
#interlisp #lisp
Spy is the statistical profiler of Medley Interlisp. The tool periodically interrupts the running program to sample the functions in the current call stack and displays the data.
files.interlisp.org/medley/libra...
#interlisp #profiling #lisp