Number: 248

Date: 22-Mar-84 10':13':59

Submitter: Sannella.PA

Source: Masinter.pa

Subject: Want revised VM specification

Lisp Version: 

Description: '
Date': 21 Mar 84 09':11 PST'
From': Masinter.pa'
Subject': Want revised VM specification'
In-reply-to': JONL.PA''s message of 19 MAR 84 19':22 PST'
To': LispSupport'
cc': JONL.PA, MASINTER.PA, lispcore^.PA'
'
[AR Documentation/Other, Difficulty': Hard, Priority': Unlikely, Assigned to': Sheil, Attn': JonL, Impact': Moderate]'
'
Unfortunately, a lot of the "invariants" of Interlisp are not documented.'
'
Many were in the Interlisp Virtual Machine Specification by J Moore. That document unfortunately is out of date. One of the ways it is out of date is that it doesn''t mention "streams".  It is pretty clear that FULLNAME is a unique handle on the open stream. One of the "file assumptions" we are breaking is that we are allowing FULLNAME to be a non-Literal Atom.'
'
One way to couch these design discussions would be to come up with a revision to the appropriate section of the VM; that is a reasonably formal specification which spells out the way in which the pieces interact with each other. '
'
(I''m retrieving the VM document from archive.)'
'
-----'
'
Date': 26 Mar 84 15':31 PST'
From': masinter.pa'
'
The sources for the Virtual Machine specification are currently on [maxc]<Netlisp>. The vm.partN files are more up to date. I think that some of the VM documentation could form the kernel for a more formal description of what Interlisp does internally (e.g., the exact specification of what FULLNAME does and its invariants is not a good subject for the Interlisp Reference Manual but would be a good subject for the VM document).'
'
'
'
Date': 22 MAR 84 13':29 PST'
Subject': Files retrieved from archive'
'
<NETLISP>VM.PUB;1'
<NETLISP>VM.PART8;1   not retrieved - file already exists on disk'
<NETLISP>VM.PART7;1   not retrieved - file already exists on disk'
<NETLISP>VM.PART6;1   not retrieved - file already exists on disk'
<NETLISP>VM.PART5;1   not retrieved - file already exists on disk'
<NETLISP>VM.PART4;1   not retrieved - file already exists on disk'
<NETLISP>VM.PART3;1   not retrieved - file already exists on disk'
<NETLISP>VM.PART2;1   not retrieved - file already exists on disk'
<NETLISP>VM.PART1;1   not retrieved - file already exists on disk'


Workaround: 

Test Case: 

Edit-By: masinter.PA

Edit-Date: 13-Jul-84 17':36':49

Attn: Documentation

Assigned To: 

In/By: 

Disposition: 

System: Documentation

Subsystem: Other

Machine: 

Disk: 

Microcode Version: 

Memory Size: 

File Server: 

Server Software Version: 

Difficulty: Hard

Frequency: 

Impact: Moderate

Priority: Unlikely

Status: Open

Problem Type: Documentation

Source Files: