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Medley

This repository is for the Lisp environment of Medley.

Install and Run covers ways to install and start up Medley on Linux systems, MacOS, and Windows (with or without WSL).

Using Medley has an overview and pointers to documentation.

Interlisp/maiko, is the repo for the implementation (in C) of the Medley virtual machine.

Releases

While there are installers for popular platforms, this section may be useful in some circumstances.

Getting releases

Get the Maiko release here. You'll need the .tgz file corresponding to your operating system and processor. For Windows with WSL or Intel Linux, use linux.x86_64; for Macs use darwin.x86_64 for Intel and darwin.aarch64 for Mac silicon. Windows without WSL uses cygwin instead.

Or, build your own maiko (the binaries lde, ldex OR ldesdl, and ldeinit). You can also build for other architectures

The medley release image and sources come in two parts, found here

  1. The "loadups" (download medley-YYMMDD-XXXXX-loadups.tgz)
  2. The "runtime" (download medley-YYMMDD-XXXXX-runtime.tgz)

where YYMMDD is the date and XXXXX is the GitHub commit ID.

The "runtime" isn't needed if you've cloned the (medley) repo--you have all the files. The "runtime" has extra fonts, unicode tables, and source code that aren't part of the loadups but may be called on.

Unpacking releases

From a shell/terminal window:

  1. Choose a directory parent where you want to install medley and maiko.
  2. Unpack the medley loadups file
  1. Unpack the medley runtime OR clone the Medley repo (the "medley runtime" is just a subset of the whole repo)

  1. Unpack the maiko file for your operating system and CPU type, e.g.,

    tar xvzf maiko-210823.linux.x86_64.tgz

  2. This should leave you with two directories, medley and maiko.

Setting up X

In many configurations, Medley uses an X-Server to manage its display. Most Linux desktops have one. Windows 11 with WSL includes an X-Server. For Windows 10 with WSL2, there are a number of open-source X servers; for example vcxsrv.

Mac users should get XQuartz from XQuartz.org.

Medley manages the display entirely, doesn't use X fonts and manages it's own window system.

If you have a high-resolution display, note that much of the graphics was designed for a low-resolution display, so an X-server that does "pixel doubling" is best. (E.g., Raspberry Pi does pixel doubling on 4K displays.)

Medley presumes you have a 3-button mouse; the scroll-wheel on some mice acts as one, with some difficulty. Go into XQuartz Preferences/Input and check "Emulate three button mouse" option.

Running Medley Interlisp (obsolete)

The run-medley script in this repo sets up some convenient defaults. Running Medley can be done by typing:

$ cd medley
$ ./run-medley

Or, if you wish to start Medley up with a different SYSOUT:

$ cd medley
$ ./run-medley <SYSOUT-file-name>

The first time the system is run it loads the system image that comes with the system. When you exit the system (or "do a SaveVM" menu option) the state of your machine is saved in a file named ~/lisp.virtualmem. Subsequent system startups load the ~/lisp.virtualmem image by default.

Exiting The System

The system may be exited from the Interlisp prompt by typing:

(LOGOUT)

Or from the Common Lisp prompt with:

(IL:LOGOUT)

When you log out of the system, Medley automatically creates a binary dump of your system located in your home directory named lisp.virtualmem. The next time you run the system, if you don't specify a specific image to run, Medley restores that image so that you can continue right where you left off.

Naming conventions and directory structure

File Names and Extensions: Most Interlisp source file names are UPPERCASE and Interlisp didn't use file extensions for its source files. A .TEDIT or .TXT file is probably documentation for the package of the same name, at least in the library and lispusers directories.

The current repo has both Lisp sources and compiled .LCOM and .DFASL files.

Each directory should have a README.md, but briefly