12-1-95
Started reorganization of system, using symbol names. The file
helper.lsp, which links symbols and files is eliminated, simply
by making filenames equal to symbol-names. 

Also added more mikkelsen files, by using make-mikkelsen.lsp
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
11-1-95
Modified X11 interface, which now works, using xless (at least it
displays help files).

Written mikkelsen-to-html.lsp, which translates mikkelsen pages to
html, and make-mikkelsen.lsp, which is an interface to compose
mikkelsen pages.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
10-1-95 

- More Almy Material Added. 

- Reorganized manual using Xlisp-Stat help file. 

- Modified hulp.lsp. The action procs of the list-items
in the dialog now also work if hulp.lsp is compiled, 
which makes a considerable speedup possible.

- Neat. On the Mac, with the helpsystem loaded, it is
now possible to select a word in any edit-window or
display-window, and then say command-H to look it up.
command-P will put up everything with the word in it,
and command-T will find a unique completion if there is
one, and replace the word by its completion.
No such luck in X11, however.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
9-1-95

I have been working off and on to get a somewhat nicer and more
complete on-line help facility for Xlisp-Stat. In the directory

ftp://ftp.stat.ucla.edu/pub/lisp/xlisp/xlisp-stat/code/homegrown/help

is the most recent attempt. We have to work with three sets of
materials:

- Tim Mikkelsen's Reference Manual for Xlisp 2.0
- Tom Almy's Manual for Xlisp 2.1f (an upgrade of David Betz manual
  for 2.1)
- Luke Tierney's help file, the appendix to the 1988 Minnesota
  Report, the Book, the Xlisp-Stat 2.1 release 3 upgrade notes

I have started with Mikkelsen. All of this is in the help dialogs.
But some of it is outdated (due to Almy-Tierney upgrades) and
it is very incomplete (compared to both Xlisp-PLus and Xlisp-Stat).
I have added much of Almy, but not yet the new function descriptions
and the function modifications, because I want to use the Mikkelsen
format for each page. Almost nothing of Xlisp-Stat has been added,
but it is easy to see how and where it will fit in. Just a week
of work.

So far, I have only tried this on the Mac (actually, if you unpack this,
the text files be in Mac form). Because of the disgusting fact that
there is no display-window-proto in the X11 version, I have used the
hack of opening an Xterm with the help text browsed by more in it.
Because laplace is down with a broken power supply, I can't test this
now, but there is no reason why it should not work.

The help consists of four pieces. The files hulp.lsp and
helper.lsp and manual.lsp should be at the level of the Xlisp
interpreter, the directory Help (which has 400+ files) should
be on the same level (i.e. next to Examples and Data). Load
hulp.lsp, and start by saying (hulp). 

Although this thing is far from complete, it is much much more
complete than my previous effort. It is also nicer, because it has
apropos and search and an index. For now, it is perhaps mainly
for programmers, not for statisticians, but the next wave of
andrenalin and coffee may change this. Or perhaps somebody else
could do some stuff.

Various people have suggested, or urged, that I made an html
version of the help browser. I am somewhat reluctant to do this,
because of portability, and because it involves more work. The
hierarchical structure of the current help shows clearly, of
course, what a html version would look like.

O, and now for something completely different, by looking at
all the symbols of Xlisp-Stat 3.44 I discovered something
interesting. You can also discover this, by opening your faithful
Xlisp-Stat on the Mac, and by saying

(help* 'apple-event)


--- Jan