Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: brunix!news.Brown.EDU!noc.near.net!inmet!spock!stt
From: stt@spock.camb.inmet.com (Tucker Taft)
Subject: Re: Want Old Byte Lisp Source
Message-ID: <CEqypq.K0D@inmet.camb.inmet.com>
Keywords: Lisp Byte 68HC11 6800
Sender: news@inmet.camb.inmet.com
Nntp-Posting-Host: spock
Organization: Intermetrics Inc, Cambridge MA
References: <1993Oct8.213252.7662@aio.jsc.nasa.gov> <1993Oct10.201936.1555@mksol.dseg.ti.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1993 19:13:01 GMT
Lines: 66

In article <1993Oct10.201936.1555@mksol.dseg.ti.com> 
 strohm@mksol.dseg.ti.com (john r strohm) writes:

>I am forwarding this to comp.lang.ada, because it is the easiest way I know
>to get it to Tuck's attention.

Ok, you got my attention...

>In article <1993Oct8.213252.7662@aio.jsc.nasa.gov> 
> watts@pat.mdc.com (Grayum Watts) writes:

>>I'm looking for the source code to "An M6800 LISP Interpreter" which
>>was published in August 1979 Byte Magazine's Nybbles Library as BYTE
>>document number 112. The code accompanied an article titled "The Design
>>of an M6800 LISP Interpreter" by S. Tucker Taft.

I can see the headline: "Ada world discovers S. T. Taft involved with
other languages before he met Ada" ;-).

>>Can someone tell me if these old Nybbles Library programs are still
>>available? Are they archived such that I can ftp them? Can they be accessed
>>through BIX? Can I access BIX from the internet?

I can't help you with that.  You might try contacting Byte Magazine
directly (Peterborough NH?).

>>I would actually prefer the source to a (free) 68HC11 Lisp, if anyone can
>>direct me to one. While I believe that I can translate a 6800 assembler
>>program into 6811 assembler without too much trouble, it would be a lot easier
>>if I can find an interpreter already in 68HC11 assembler.

I fear my MC6800 source is long gone.  I have an 8080 version if
you want it ;-), and one written in C.

>>I want to implement a _very_ small Lisp interpreter on a Motorola 68HC11
>>processor with 32K RAM. The 68HC11 is on a MIT 6.270 robot board, and
>>I would like to do high-level A.I. type reasoning in Lisp, and link low-level
>>Lisp functions to assembly language drivers for motor control and sensors.

There is no problem getting the interpreter into about 4K RAM, but you
won't be able to do much "high-level A.I. type reasoning" in LISP unless 
you have about 256K RAM (256Meg preferred ;-), or you like waiting for 
continual garbage collections.  

The notion that you need Lisp to do A.I. type reasoning is
also a bit of a myth, but I will admit it is fun using
a Lisp Interpreter (or almost any interpreter for that matter)
on a teeny machine.  

The king of the "small interpretive languages" is generally considered
to be "Forth," though its "write-only" reputation is a bit scary.
Of course, now that postfix notation has gone mainstream with
PostScript, perhaps we will see a resurgence in interest in Forth-like
languages.

>>Please reply to me at watts@pat.mdc.com.
>>-- 
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Grayum Watts (watts@pat.mdc.com)
>>All comments and opinions are strictly my responsibility and do not
>>necessarily reflect the views of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation or
>>any of its component companies.

S. Tucker Taft  stt@inmet.com    (CLOSet Lisp Hacker ;-)
Intermetrics, Inc.
Cambridge, MA  02138
