Dear folks,
I am looking for a copy of Terry Winograd's shrdlu that is up and
running on a reasonably accessible kind of machine (UNIX, Mac, PC etc).
The source code in old-fashioned maclisp is available by anonymous ftp,
but I doubt I am enough of a lisp hacker to get it going on modern
versions of lisp. Terry Winograd mentioned that people have looked into
getting it going:
>There is no running version as far as I know. The source code is
available
>via FTP on ftp://csli.stanford.edu/pub/shrdlu.tar.Z If you're not on a
>unix, we can figure out a way to get an uncomrpessed version.
>
>It is written in a dialect of Lisp (Maclisp) that was implemented on the
>PDP6 and later PDP10. I have had various inquiries from people
interested
>in converting it to a more modern LISP, but none of them have ever gotten
>back to me with results.
If anyone has any suggestions or information about the existence of a
working version of shrdlu, the possibility or otherwise of making maclisp
work (I have available to me Lucid Common Lisp and Austin Kyoto Common
Lisp) or any other relevant help, please email me at:
···········@anu.edu.au
I don't read these newsgroups, but I'll post a summary (perhaps for
inclusion in FAQs?) if I get a response.
thanks,
hugh
Hugh Clapin +61-6-249 4527 (w)
Philosophy, Arts +61-6-249 5058
(fax)
A.N.U., A.C.T. 0200
···········@anu.edu.au
In article <··········@manuel.anu.edu.au> Hugh Clapin <···········@anu.edu.au> writes:
> I am looking for a copy of Terry Winograd's shrdlu that is up and
>running on a reasonably accessible kind of machine (UNIX, Mac, PC etc).
>The source code in old-fashioned maclisp is available by anonymous ftp,
>but I doubt I am enough of a lisp hacker to get it going on modern
>versions of lisp. Terry Winograd mentioned that people have looked into
>getting it going:
>
>>There is no running version as far as I know. The source code is
>available
>>via FTP on ftp://csli.stanford.edu/pub/shrdlu.tar.Z If you're not on a
>>unix, we can figure out a way to get an uncomrpessed version.
>>
>>It is written in a dialect of Lisp (Maclisp) that was implemented on the
>>PDP6 and later PDP10. I have had various inquiries from people
>interested
>>in converting it to a more modern LISP, but none of them have ever gotten
>>back to me with results.
>
>If anyone has any suggestions or information about the existence of a
>working version of shrdlu, the possibility or otherwise of making maclisp
>work (I have available to me Lucid Common Lisp and Austin Kyoto Common
>Lisp) or any other relevant help, please email me at:
Shrdlu and Macsyma are nearly contemporary programs, so the work to make
shrdlu run is similar to that for Macsyma. Getting shrdlu to run under
the pre-Common Lisp Berkeley Lisp should be relatively straightforward.
Getting shrdlu to run under Common Lisp would take more work, since a
whole bunch of things need to be declared as 'special' variables, and
a number of functions have changed names and/or calling sequences.
Shrdlu had a graphics front-end that would have to be mapped into some
standard graphics window system. This part would take some work.
You should be aware that shrdlu never _really_ worked, in the same
sense that Macsyma did -- it was just a research prototype cobbled
together for a PhD thesis. Therefore, substantial efforts would be
required to bulletproof it enough to make a museum-quality demo.
While you're at it, perhaps you would like to get Bill Woods' 'Lunar
Rocks' natural language program running, as well. It used an early
version of what became Interlisp, and so would also require some work.
Henry Baker
Read ftp.netcom.com:/pub/hbaker/README for info on ftp-able papers.
In article <················@netcom.com> ······@netcom.com (Henry G. Baker) writes:
While you're at it, perhaps you would like to get Bill Woods' 'Lunar
Rocks' natural language program running, as well. It used an early
version of what became Interlisp, and so would also require some work.
Depends on how early. Interlisp is still alive and well in Medley, so
if it stuck pretty close to the core language and didn't use stuff
that depends on DWIM then it might be an easy port.
...arun
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Arun Welch 2455 Northstar Rd
Network Engineer Columbus, OH 43221
OARnet ·····@oar.net
--
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Arun Welch 2455 Northstar Rd
Network Engineer Columbus, OH 43221
OARnet ·····@oar.net
······@netcom.com writes:
···········@anu.edu.au writes:
>>I am looking for a copy of Terry Winograd's shrdlu that is up and
>>running on a reasonably accessible kind of machine (UNIX, Mac, PC etc).
>Shrdlu and Macsyma are nearly contemporary programs, so the work to make
>shrdlu run [in CommonLisp] is similar to that for Macsyma.
Macsyma was ported to CommonLisp a long, long time ago by Kent Pitman.
He made some notes during his porting that would be useful for others
porting old MacLisp programs, but I'm not sure if they were ever
published. However, they are still in the present Macsyma sources.
You might try contacting him via ···@harlequin.com to see if his
notes are available.
...
>You should be aware that shrdlu never _really_ worked, in the same
>sense that Macsyma did -- it was just a research prototype cobbled
>together for a PhD thesis.
The above statement about Macsyma 'never _really_ working' has to be
one of the most outrageous remarks I've seen in a long time. Macsyma
has worked quite admirably for almost three decades now. One only need
consult the list of Macsyma citations to realize just how enormous an
influence Macsyma has had in symbolic computation. Many important
theses would never have been possible without it, and you will often
find Macsyma and the Mathlab Group graciously acknowledged in such
work.
In fact--somewhat suprisingly--the pioneer Macsyma still works better
than some of the second or third generation symbolic math systems
like Mathematica or Maple when it comes to mathematical correctness.
I'd suggest you take a look at the latest commercial version of
Macsyma for MS-Windows to see where Macsyma is today. Given that
Macsyma has survived almost three decades one cannot help but think
that something must _really_ be working in Macsyma.
In article <·················@martigny.ai.mit.edu>, ···@zurich.ai.mit.edu
(William G. Dubuque) wrote:
> ······@netcom.com writes:
> ...
> >You should be aware that shrdlu never _really_ worked, in the same
> >sense that Macsyma did -- it was just a research prototype cobbled
> >together for a PhD thesis.
>
> The above statement about Macsyma 'never _really_ working' has to be
> one of the most outrageous remarks I've seen in a long time.
I believe that what the original poster (······@netcom.com)
meant is that Macsyma *did* work, whereas shrdlu didn't.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian Hayes ······@mercury.interpath.net