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decuslib10-04
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43,50322/change.doc
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CHANGES TO THE UCILSP SYSTEM 9/73
Summary
Various changes have again been made to the UCILSP
system. Among these are a plethora of new functions
particularly I/O type functions, access to the QMANGR to
allow spooling of output and batching of jobs. Also some
common functions such as AND and OR have been changed so
that they now return useful values instead of T. Several
new symbol table functions have been added. Internally, the
I/O has been reorganized which will make it easier for
future expansion and the bit-pushers.
A new data type has been added using binary program
space. Multiple OBLISTs are now possible using this data
type. Note that the value of the atom OBLIST is now truly
the oblist. The normal system OBLIST can be restored via a
REE when at the monitor level, followed by an ^R
(CONTROL-R). This also often corrects that occasional
problem of a GARBAGED OBLIST. Try it and see.
Various bugs and other problems have been fixed. Some
common illegal memory references have been eliminated.
Among others, DSKOUT no longer clobbers the previously open
channel and SUBST and COPY now work properly. (They used to
be clobbered by the garbage collector).
CHANGES . 1
Changes to Old Functions
AND OR MEMQ MEMBER
These functions have been changed so that they return useful
values as did their old counterparts AND#, OR#, MEMQ# and
MEMBER#. The # functions are no longer in the system, but
are contained in a file called COMPAT.LSP.
CONSP
CONSP also returns a useful value, it's argument, if it is a
cons cell and not an atom.
DSKOUT
DSKOUT now attempts to back up the file if it already
exists.
CHANGES . 2
New I/O Functions
Various functions for file manipulation, reading
directories and queueing files have been added.
RENAME *RENAME
These functions allow the renaming of files. RENAME is an
FSUBR that does not evaluate it's arguments, *RENAME is the
SUBR version.
DELETE
DELETE is an FSUBR that deletes the files in it's argument
list. It ignores files that do not exist.
LOOKUP
LOOKUP checks to see if a file exists. Handy in conjunction
with the rename functions.
FILBAK
FILBAK renames a file to the specified extension.
QUEUE
QUEUE is the serves the same functions as the monitor
command of the same name. No longer do you have to destroy
your core image or go through the contortions of detaching
and QUEUEing to get a listing on the line printer.
UFDINP
UFDINP opens a UFD on the specified channel for reading
directories.
RDFILE
RDFILE reads the next entry from a UFD, i.e. the next file.
DIR
DIR returns a list of files in the specified directory.
RDNAM
RDNAM reads without interning.
CHANGES . 3
New Predicates
NUMTYPE
NUMTYPE returns FIXNUM or FLONUM depending on the type of
it's numeric argument.
INUMP
INUMP returns it's argument if it is an INUM and NIL
otherwise.
CHANGES . 4
Miscellaneous Functions
ERRCH
ERRCH changes the bell character that causes an (ERR (QUOTE
ERRORX)) when read. Returns the ASCII representation of the
old character. Takes the ASCII representation of the new
character as it's argument.
INITFL The system now allows a list of files instead of the old
INIT.LSP only. The first file in the list is always
optional. If any of the subsequent files are not found, an
error is generated.
*RPUTSYM RPUTSYM
Analagous to *PUTSYM and PUTSYM except that they only take
cons cells for the values. They store the values in the
symbol table with the atom relocation stripped off thus
allowing BPS to be expanded without clobbering code that
references free space.
*RGETSYM RGETSYM
Analoguos to *GETSYM and GETSYM except that the atom
relocation is add back in before returning the value.
CHANGES . 5
BLOCK Data Type
This data type is a contiguous block of storage in BINARY
PROGRAM SPACE. It's main usage is for building lists that
can also be referenced as tables. All of the functions that
work on normal lists will also work on lists built in these
BLOCKs. All of these functions return true addresses
pointing to the beginning of the BLOCK.
GTBLK
GTBLK returns a block of storage. This block can either be
considered a block of pointers, in which case it will be
scanned by the garbage collector, or the user can use it for
whatever his heart desires.
BLKLST
BLKLST maps a list into a BLOCK. The CDR's of the BLOC are
each successive word of the block. The CARs are the CARs of
the list given as one of it's arguments.
CHANGES . 6