Post #1842531

2026-04-30 20:47 UTC

As part of my history project, I was looking for a document I wrote that offered specific advice on converting Maclisp and Zetalisp to Common Lisp. I had to laugh when I found it. It&#39;s already published as part of the Sunday Morning Edition of the Pitmanual (the webbed version of the Revised Maclisp Manual, the printed version of which was the Saturday Evening Edition). The printed version does not contain the conversion guide. It was an &quot;extra&quot; I through in as part of the webbing. But it&#39;s perhaps hard to find, so I thought I&#39;d say it out loud. It&#39;s several pages that begin here: https://maclisp.info/pitmanual/cl-conv-01-intr.html #Lisp #Maclisp #Zetalisp #CommonLisp #KentsHistoryProject #Lisp #ComputerHistory cc @screwlisp @larsbrinkhoff @eswenson

Replies (3)

@larsbrinkhoff@mastodon.sdf.org 2026-05-01 06:21

@kentpitman@climatejustice.social @screwlisp@gamerplus.org I think you meant this: @eswenson@mastodon.sdf.org

Open ##2369174
@vnikolov@ieji.de 2026-05-01 08:53

I wish I had this many years ago when I was converting a parser for ambiguous grammars¹. I don't recall who had written it, alas. That parser constructed all possible parse trees, sharing common subtrees. _________ ¹ A very well-known example: "I saw a man in the park with a telescope." @kentpitman@climatejustice.social @screwlisp@gamerplus.org @larsbrinkhoff@mastodon.sdf.org @eswenson@c.im

Open ##2369175
@weekend_editor@mathstodon.xyz 2026-05-02 11:46

@kentpitman@climatejustice.social @screwlisp@gamerplus.org @larsbrinkhoff@mastodon.sdf.org @eswenson@c.im I remember being at a talk you gave on your semi-automated Symbolics MACSYMA conversion. I asked you what it did about comments, since it processed S-expressions from which comments were removed. You shrugged and said, "Fortunately..." and then everybody laughed because we all knew there were so few comments that they could be handled one-by-one. :-)

Open ##2369176