Venue Medley for the Novice Release 2.0 February, 1992 Address comments to: Venue User Documentation 1549 Industrial Road San Carlos, CA 94070 415-508-9672 Medley for the Novice Release 2.0 February 1992 Copyright 1992 by Venue. All rights reserved. Medley is a trademark of Venue. Xerox is a registered trademark and InterPress is a trademark of Xerox Corporation. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc. Copyright protection includes material generated from the software programs displayed on the screen, such as icons, screen display looks, and the like. The information in this document is subject to change without notice and should not be construed as a commitment by Venue. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this document, Venue assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear. Text was written and produced with Venue text formatting tools; Xerox printers were used to produce text masters. The typeface is Classic. PREFACE It was dawn and the local told him it was down the road a piece, left at the first fishing bridge in the country, right at the appletree stump, and onto the dirt road just before the hill. At midnight he knew he was lost. -Anonymous Welcome to the Medley Lisp Development Environment, a collection of powerful tools for assisting you in programming in Lisp, developing sophisticated user interfaces, and creating prototypes of your ideas in a quick and easy manner. Unfortunately, along with the power comes mind-numbing complexity. The Medley documentation set describes all the tools in detail, but it would be unreasonable for us to expect a new user to wade through all of it, so this primer is intended as an introduction, to give you a taste of some of the features. We developed this primer to provide a starting point for new Medley users, to enhance your excitement and challenge you with the potential before you. We’re going to make some assumptions about you. For starters, we’re going to assume that you’re sitting at a workstation that can run Medley. All of the examples in the book figure that you’re going to want to try things out. We’re also going to assume that you’ve had some exposure to Lisp, hopefully Common Lisp. Medley actually consists of two complete Lisp implementations, Common Lisp and InterLisp. All the screen I/O and some of the system functions are in InterLisp. However, thanks to the package system, you can call back and forth between the two languages by simply including a package delimiter in front of a symbol name. This sounds complicated, but it will become clearer once we do some examples. Throughout we make reference to the lnterlisp-D Reference Manual by section and page number. The material in the primer is just an introduction. When you need more depth, use the detailed treatment provided in the manual. While only you can plot your ultimate destination, you will flnd this primer indispensable for clearly defining and guiding you to the first landmarks on your way. Acknowledgements The early inspiration and model for this primer came from the Intelligent Tutoring Systems group and the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. We gratefully acknowledge their pioneering contribution to more effective artificial intelligence. This primer was originally developed by Computer Possibilities, a company committed to making Al technology available. Primary development and writing was done by Cynthia Cosic, with technical writing support provided by Sam Zordich. It has been re- done by Venue staff to reflect changes in the environment since the original publication. At Xerox Artificial Intelligence Systems, John Vittal managed and directed the project. Substantial assistance was provided by many members of the AlS staff who provided both editorial and systems support. Medley for the Novice, Release 2.0 vii PREFACE [This page intentionally left blank] viii Medley for the Novice, Release 2.0 TABLE of CONTENTS Preface.................................................................................................................................................... vii 1. Brief Glossary ......................................................................................................................... 1-1 2. Typing Shortcuts Programmer’s Assistant............................................................................................................. 2-1 If You Make a Mistake .............................................................................................................. 2-2 3. Using Menus Making a Selection from a Menu .............................................................................................. 3-1 Explanations of Menu Items ..................................................................................................... 3-2 Submenus ................................................................................................................................. 3-2 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 3-3 4. How to Use Files Types of Files .......................................................................................................................... 4-1 Directories ................................................................................................................................. 4-1 Directory Options ...................................................................................................................... 4-2 Subdirectories ........................................................................................................................... 4-2 To See What Files Are Loaded ................................................................................................. 4-3 Simple Commands for Manipulating Files ................................................................................. 4-3 Connecting to a Directory .......................................................................................................... 4-3 File Version Numbers ................................................................................................................ 4-4 5. FileBrowser Calling the FileBrowser ............................................................................................................. 5-1 FileBrowser Commands ........................................................................................................... 5-3 6. Those Wondertul Windows! Windows Provided by Medley................................................................................................... 6-1 Creating a Window .................................................................................................................. 6-2 Right Button Default Window Menu .......................................................................................... 6-2 Explanation of Each Menu Item ................................................................................................ 6-3 Scrollable Windows .................................................................................................................. 6-4 Other Window Functions .......................................................................................................... 6-5 PROMPTPRlNT ............................................................................................................... 6-5 WHlCHW .......................................................................................................................... 6-6 Medley for the Novice, Release 2.0 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS 7. Editing and Saving Defining Functions .................................................................................................................... 7-1 Simple Editing in the Executive Window ................................................................................... 7-2 Using the List Structure Editor ................................................................................................... 7-3 Commenting Functions.............................................................................................................. 7-4 File Functions and Variables: How to See and Save Them ...................................................... 7-5 File Variables ............................................................................................................................. 7-5 Saving Interlisp-D on Files......................................................................................................... 7-5 8. Your Init File Using the USERGREETFILES Variable ................................................................................... 8-1 Making an Init File ..................................................................................................................... 8-1 9. Medley Forgiveness: DWIM ............................................................................................. 9-1 10. Break Package Break Windows ....................................................................................................................... 10-1 Break Package Examples ....................................................................................................... 10-1 Ways to Stop Execution from the Keyboard (Breaking Lisp) .................................................. 10-3 Break Menu ...........................................................................................................................