COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00003 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	∂03-Jul-82  0015	JMC  
C00004 00003	∂03-Jul-82  1529	JMC  
C00005 ENDMK
C⊗;
∂03-Jul-82  0015	JMC  
To:   CLT    
When on friday do you want to go to Carmel?

∂03-Jul-82  1529	JMC  
To:   equip at SU-SHASTA    
It was my understanding that the marginal price of the IBM 3380 disk
at 2.5 gigabytes was $40,000.  When we get some ARPA money, we must
survey the market and ask for proposals.  I don't understand the part
about moving fast.  I recognize that programming considerations may
dictate using less cost effective disks, but the difference here seems
rather large.

∂06-Jul-82  1455	JMC  
To:   equip at SU-SHASTA    
My memory of IBM price must have been incorrect.

∂07-Jul-82  1823	JMC  
To:   JMC    
balance=27.759,47

∂11-Jul-82  0255	JMC  
To:   marg at MIT-AI   
How is the Center of the World?

∂12-Jul-82  1626	JMC  
To:   bmoore at SRI-AI 
Axiomatizing of the blocks world using situations and circumscription

	One long term goal of AI is a general purpose database for
common sense facts about the effects of actions and other events.
Indeed a program with common sense must be able to apply general
knowledge to any problem that comes up and cannot expect some human
to give a presentation of the facts about (say) moving objects
specialized to the particular problem.

	The paper will present some recent progress towards this goal in
the area of the effects of actions that move objects, i.e. the blocks
world.  Using circumscription and considerable reification reduces
the frame and qualification problems greatly.  While more general
purpose than previous formalizations, there are still many limitations.

	Both the new methods and their limitations will be discussed.

∂12-Jul-82  1815	JMC  
To:   JMC    
EJS and REG Friday 1:30

∂12-Jul-82  1856	JMC  
To:   Colmerauer at MIT-MULTICS
CC:   csd.golub at SU-SCORE   
Dear Alain:

	The current proposal is approximately as follows:

	You would come to Stanford for the Winter Quarter 1983 and
teach one course of 3 hours per week in logic programming or other
topic of your choice.  Winter quarter classes start Jan 4 with
student registration Jan 2.  Classes end March 13 and examinations
are the following week.  Classes that meet on Monday, Wednesday and
Friday are usually 50 minutes and those meeting on Tuesday and
Thursday about 80 minutes.

	In order to make an official offer, Professor Gene Golub,
the Department Chairman, needs a curriculum vitae.  The intent is
that you would be paid half by the Department and half from one
of my research grants.

	You can send the c.v. by net mail to CSD.GOLUB@SCORE or
by ordinary mail to him at

Computer Science Department
Stanford, California 94305

	Best Regards,

∂13-Jul-82  1237	JMC  
To:   csd.bscott at SU-SCORE
Please call Dr. Chien at NSF 202 357-7345 concerning a report about my
unexpended funds on my grants that is required for processing the
grant for Ketonen's support.   Also  Chien tried to phone Ketonen and
was told by whoever answered the department phone that he didn't have
an extension.  It has been 4202 for at least 2 years.
I'm not entirely sure that Chien isn't confused about something.

∂13-Jul-82  2347	JMC  
To:   csd.genesereth at SU-SCORE 
Seminar by John McCarthy at 10:30, 1982 July 15 at SRI
Call Bob Moore at SRI if you need help getting in.

Axiomatizing of the blocks world using situations and circumscription

	One long term goal of AI is a general purpose database for
common sense facts about the effects of actions and other events.
Indeed a program with common sense must be able to apply general
knowledge to any problem that comes up and cannot expect some human
to give a presentation of the facts about (say) moving objects
specialized to the particular problem.

	The paper will present some recent progress towards this goal in
the area of the effects of actions that move objects, i.e. the blocks
world.  Using circumscription and considerable reification reduces
the frame and qualification problems greatly.  While more general
purpose than previous formalizations, there are still many limitations.

	Both the new methods and their limitations will be discussed.

∂13-Jul-82  2348	JMC  
To:   csd.golub at SU-SCORE 
I was supposing that you would decide that after you see the c.v.

∂14-Jul-82  0001	JMC  	Imlac    
To:   EJS    
I hope it is still convenient for you to take a look at my Imlac
this morning (Wednesday).  Please phone me at 857-0672.  The Imlac
prints are in the print tub in the room with the IIIs.  They are
the fourth from the computer room end.

∂15-Jul-82  1730	JMC  
To:   buchanan at SUMEX-AIM 
Yes, I plan to be in town Aug. 23-27.

∂16-Jul-82  0009	JMC  
To:   wilkins at SRI-AI
The McCarthy prize problem

	John McCarthy offers $100 of his own money for the best satisfactory
solution of the following problem.  Solutions must be in writing
and delivered to McCarthy or Nils Nilsson by Friday, July 23, 1982,
and the solvers must be prepared to defend their solutions orally
at SRI on that date.  Unless there is a satisfactory solution, no
prize will be awarded.

	The problem is to give axioms from which the following
piece of chess reasoning can be carried out.  The point isn't
chess, and solutions can use suitable chess lemmas as axioms.
On the other hand, it must be clear that the solution follows
entirely formally from the axioms.  Solutions will be compared,
if there is more than one meeting the formal requirements, according
to how well they express the informal reasoning presented below.


A chess example of reasoning about concurrent actions.

	The chess position of Figure 1 is mentioned in (Berliner 197x).
All he does with it is to remark that unless the lookahead sees very far
ahead, present day programs will keep the white king behind the white
pawns in order to preserve control of the center and hence won't win.
However, the following argument that white can win shows that
chess reasoning involves reasoning about concurrent events even though
the actual moves in chess are sequential.

	We note that black must stay within the eight marked squares or else
white will promote his pawn, and this is assumed to win for white.
White can win by moving his king along the path shown in the
figure and black cannot prevent his reaching b5 without letting
the pawn promote.  When it is white's move with his king on b5, if
the black king is not on c7, then the white king can immediately
advance to c6.  If the black king is on c7, then white moves his king
to a6 and can subsequently move to b6 and then to c6 without further
interference.  When it is white's move with his king on c6, if the
black king is not on e7, then white can capture the black pawn on
d6 - which is assumed to win.  If the black king is on e7, then white
move his king to c7 and can capture the pawn on the next move.

	From the AI point of view, the most interesting part of this argument
is that we do not need to examine in detail what black can do while
white is advancing his king.  All we need to reason about is whether
black stays within the eight squares that prevent the pawn from
queening.  We achieve an enourmous reduction in search space, because
we don't have to do a tree search on the black moves.  However, this
reduction is accomplished by reasoning about concurrent action, namely
"while white is advancing his king, black must stay within the eight
squares and therefore cannot interfere with the advance".  The last
two steps of reasoning, each of which makes a case analysis according to whether
the black king is or is not on a specific square, are also worth noting.

Figure 1 has the white king on d3, the black king on d8, white pawns
on c4, d5, e6, f5 and g4, and black pawns on c5, d6, f6 and g5.

	It seems to me that this problem provides the opportunity for
an advance beyond the simple situation calculus.  The problem is to
give a set of first order axioms that allow a proof that white can
win.  Of course, it is permissible to abstract away the specifically
chess aspects of the problem.

∂16-Jul-82  1315	JMC  
To:   MDD, DCL    
I have one last caveat concerning award to Wang.  Does he want it?
If he regards his work in theorem proving as unimportant, having
him give a lecture on it may be an embarassment both to him and
to the audience.  Martin, do you know is attitude?  If not, would
you sound him out before we go public.

∂16-Jul-82  1416	JMC  	postponement  
To:   bmoore at SRI-AI 
Unless others have a lot to say, I would like to postpone the
session on order of circumscription scheduled for 4pm to a time
next week to be specified on Monday.  I have no scheduling problem
and could come by, but I haven't thought about the problem enough.

∂19-Jul-82  1727	JMC  
To:   bmoore at SRI-AI 
Any chance of moving McD back to 3?  I have a conflict with 1:30.

∂19-Jul-82  1751	JMC  
To:   bmoore at SRI-KL 
	10:30 for McD would be fine.

∂19-Jul-82  1844	JMC  
To:   untulis at SRI-AI
Have you Bob Moore's home phone?  A seminar time change is dangling.

∂19-Jul-82  1850	JMC  
To:   untulis at SRI-AI
Many thanks.  I didn't know which Robert Moore he was.

∂19-Jul-82  2156	JMC  
To:   bmoore at SRI-AI 
Thanks Bob, I'll call in the morning.

∂20-Jul-82  1506	JMC  
To:   konolige at SRI-AI    
What time Thursday your talk?

∂20-Jul-82  1508	JMC  
To:   MDD
CC:   DCL   
The present form of the Wang citation is fine with me.

∂21-Jul-82  0041	JMC  
To:   MDD, DCL    
Let's accomodate Woody.

∂21-Jul-82  1257	JMC  
To:   MDD    
I also agree.

∂26-Jul-82  1500	JMC  
To:   csd.golub at SU-SCORE 
I will be in the East Aug. 9 to 20.

∂26-Jul-82  1500	JMC  
To:   MDD
CC:   DCL   
I go along with standing pat.

∂27-Jul-82  1454	JMC  
To:   FFL    
wilens.1

∂27-Jul-82  1505	JMC  
To:   FFL    
lieber.1

∂27-Jul-82  1522	JMC  
To:   Colmerauer at MIT-MULTICS  
Golub needs vita to make offer.

∂27-Jul-82  1541	JMC  
To:   FFL    
pagels.1

∂27-Jul-82  1752	JMC  
To:   JRP    
ex-wifes on p. 5-3

∂27-Jul-82  2009	JMC  
To:   JRP    
p.5-7 Napolean

∂27-Jul-82  2115	JMC  
To:   JRP    
p.5-9 occassions

∂29-Jul-82  1949	JMC  
To:   jgoldberger at USC-ISIB    
I suggest you inquire of David Warren, one of the developers of
DEC-10 Prolog while at Edinburgh.  He is WARREN@SRI-AI.

∂29-Jul-82  1957	JMC  
To:   MDD    
rename <newfile-name> ← <old-file-name>

renames a file, and I renamed your message file.  Unfortunately,
the name of a message file, for some ancient bad reason, has to be
written as ↓   mdd↓.msg  where the  character ↓ (which appears here
as a downward pointing arrow) is used for quoting a six character
string, the first three characters of which are blanks.  I did it for
you, but to do it yourself, you'll have to figure out how to transmit
that character to SAIL.

∂01-Aug-82  1430	JMC  
To:   CLT    
"Perichole" is not in my dictionaries as a French word.

∂02-Aug-82  1359	JMC  
To:   llw at S1-A 
I'll come tomorrow if you'll be there, otherwise prefer Fri then Thurs.

∂02-Aug-82  2036	JMC  	mail
To:   MDD    
Now I'm puzzled.  The file you mailed me contains 5 lines at the
beginning - namely a directory page as used by the E editor, but it
contains 214 lines altogether, and they seem to be a collection
of messages.  Have you tried printing the file at NYU?

∂02-Aug-82  2139	JMC  	simon.1  
To:   FFL    
In this letter symbols should be italicized.

∂02-Aug-82  2317	JMC  
To:   llw at S1-A 
Saturday is possible; otherwise late August.

∂04-Aug-82  1506	JMC  	reading file  
To:   MDD    
Files are divided into pages.  In order to get from one page to
another you have to use page changing commands.  You probably
accessed only the first page of your files.

∂04-Aug-82  2155	JMC  	your objections to logic
To:   minsky at MIT-AI 
Have you ever written down your objections to using formalizations
in logic and formal deductive reasoning in AI?  If so, where?
I am writing another paper about non-monotonic reasoning in logic
for solving common sense problems, and I want to see if your old
objections can be regarded as complaints about lack of non-monotonic
reasoning.  Both relatively old papers and expressions of your
present point of view would be helpful.

∂05-Aug-82  1143	JMC  
To:   FFL    
I will be at IBM in Yorktown next Thursday, assuming the tickets come tomorrow.

∂05-Aug-82  2306	JMC  
To:   roode at SRI-NIC 
To what list are you referring?

∂05-Aug-82  2337	JMC  	lists    
To:   roode at SRI-NIC 
Well, that seems very complicated, but I still don't know the official
character of the list.  Is it Crispin's private list or has it to do
with the functioning of some group?

∂05-Aug-82  2352	JMC  
To:   roode at SRI-NIC 
I'll talk to Ralph about it or possibly to Mark, but don't hold your
breath, because I'll be away for two weeks.

∂06-Aug-82  1405	JMC   via Ethernet host 50#12 	dd replacement costs    
To:   REG    
Could you get me an estimate of what the costs of the dd replacement
project turned out to be.  It should include parts and services,
Ted's time and whatever other time, including supervisory, that was
charged to the project.  I want it in order to be able to make
realistic arguments about what McSun would cost.

∂07-Aug-82  2332	JMC  
To:   Colmerauer at MIT-MULTICS  
Curriculum vita to Golub

∂07-Aug-82  2342	JMC  →15227 (21-Aug-82)  
To:   "#___JMC.PLN[2,2]"    
I will be at IBM Yorktown c/o John Cocke 914 945-2150 and at Tarrytown
Marriott until Friday Aug 13.  From Sunday till Saturday Aug. 21, I'll
be at AAAI and LISP conferences in Pittsburgh.  Then home.

∂07-Aug-82  2355	JMC  
To:   warren at SRI-AI, nilsson at SRI-AI  
n522  2107  07 Aug 82
BC-COMP-08-08
    EDITORS: The following is from the London Telegraph and is for use
only in the United States and Canada.
    By Paul Williams
    Daily Telegraph, London (Field News Service)
     LONDON - Scientists in British universities are carrying out key
research under contracts for Japanese companies that will enable the
Japanese to make huge strides in the development of computers that
can think like human beings.
     Meanwhile, at least one important research team in artificial
intelligence has collapsed because of lack of support by the
government, and its members have gone or are going to San Francisco
to continue their work.
     The danger facing Britain of falling behind the United States and
Japan in development of the new super-computers and other aspects of
information technology will be underlined in a report to be delivered
to the government at the end of this month.
     The report, from the Alvey Committee, headed by John Alvey, senior
director of technology for British Telecom, will call for urgent
action including:
    - Setting up a central agency to coordinate research in universities
and companies.
    - Doubling the research effort into computers and information
technology, including the creation of more senior posts in
universities to encourage scientists from going to the United States.
    - Spending of many millions of dollars more a year by the government
on research.
     Inquiries by the Sunday Telegraph last week found a classic example
of the way British expertise is being wasted at the artificial
intelligence department of Edinburgh University.
     For many years this department had been ''out in the cold'' after a
short-sighted report in the 1960s said that there was ''no future''
in artificial intelligence.
     Despite this the department, which studies the way computers should
be used and the control of robots, developed a radical new computer
language, Prolog.
     This is considered by some experts - including the Japanese - to be
a key to the development of the fifth generation computer that will
reason in a human manner, be able to translate languages, run
complicated robots and even talk to its human controllers.
     Dr. Robert Kowalski, who developed Prolog there in the 1960s, moved
to Imperial College, London, where he is still working on it. In
recent years important new developments have been made by a new team
at Edinburgh.
    But this has virtually disbanded. Dr. David Warren, one of the key
men, moved to San Francisco last autumn and it is expected he will be
joined by Fernando Pereira, who has spent the last year in the
university's architecture department, working on computer-assisted
design.
     Although the department takes eight post-graduates a year, only
three are British, supported by the Science and Engineering Research
Counil.
     Money is not the only consideration. Warren has as much computer
time as he wants in San Francisco. Despite being one of the top
centers for research in Britain, Edinburgh desperately needs more
equipment and more staff - at a time when universities are facing a
very severe financial squeeze.
    Robert Rae, chief systems controller in the department, said last
week: ''We find it very sad that we were unable to offer anything to
keep Dr. Warren in this country.''
     Artificial intelligence is still a small field. The United States
probably has between 200 and 300 scientists working in this area,
while Britain has about 30.
     But the Alvey Committee has found that to keep going some of our
scientists have had to accept contracts from Japan.
     And even if Britain is unsure about Prolog, the Japanese are not.
The Edinburgh-developed language is playing an important part in the
10-year, $400 million program recently started by the Japanese to
develop a talking computer.
    END
    
nyt-08-08-82 0004edt
***************

∂08-Aug-82  0003	JMC  
To:   TW
Do you still have my Prolog book?  I want it back.

∂10-Aug-82  1310	JMC  
To:   BUCHANAN at SUMEX-AIM 
I RETURN THE 21ST.

∂11-Aug-82  0914	JMC   via NYU  
To:   FFL    
THANKS FOR CHECKING ON REGISTRATION.

∂11-Aug-82  0917	JMC   via NYU  
To:   CLT    
HI. I'LL BE LOOKING AT NETMAIL THIS WEEK.

∂13-Aug-82  2246	JMC   via NYU  
To:   pwegner at BBNA  
It was conjectured that there are systematic reasons why many
configurations of the n-queens problem fail to yield solutions
in the subsequent search.  Here is a preliminary result proving
that putting queens in positions (1,1) and (2,3) cannot lead
to a solution.  First note that wee must put a queen in the
second row, I don't care where.  Next note that the squares
not already excluded form two triangles containing 8 diagonals.
(Some squares from these triangles will be ecluded depending
on the location of the queen in row 2, but we don't need to
worry about which they are, because the configuration
would lose if none were excluded except row 2 itself).
A simple analysis of the 4 diagonals of each triangle shows
that at most  2  of the diagonals can contain queens.
This places at most 4 queens, and there are 5 to go.

The idea of this proof is that while there are initially
2n-1 diagonals of positive slope and 2n-1 of negative
slope, they are rapidly knocked off by placing queens for
two reasons.  Placing each queen occupies a diagonal, but
also diagonals are eliminated by eliminating all their squares
as being attacked.  Whenever there are fewer available diagonals
 of one slope than queens to be
placed, the search can stop without worrying about where
the queens go in the diagonals.  I should have said that
the above paragraph used only diagonals of positive slope.

It might be quite a challenge to write a program that
counted available diagonals and their mutual exclusions
in order to reduce search, but it seems clear that


vast reductions are possible in the number of positions
examined.

More later if discovered, but I send this hoping you and
Simon will get some results along this line.  Of course,
there may be some possibility that more number theory will
get still more powerful results.

I looked at all the papers that Dialog turned
up that were in the IBM library.  None gave any hint that 
straightforward backtracking plus symmetry could be improved
upon.

∂14-Aug-82  1835	JMC  
To:   chandrasekaran at RUTGERS  
Permission granted provided letter is used as a whole.

∂15-Aug-82  1053	JMC  
To:   pwegner at BBNA  
Peter and Simon:
	In testing your conjecture, you stopped just too soon.  The
paper by Bruen and Dixon cited in the literature search you have
shows how to construct a class of  non-linear solutions for
all  p > 11.  You are right that the argument I gave for
((1,1),(2,3)) has little generality.  It also doesn't work out
nicely for  ((1,1),(2,4)), i.e. much more
case analysis seems to be required.  I have written a Lisp program,
but I don't know if I'll have time to enter it and test it today.
Most of the papers concern programming methodology, and a first
look suggests that considering programming methodology puts blinkers
on a programmer so he doesn't think about better algorithms.
It would be interesting to challenge Dijkstra or Wirth or
McKeeman or Naur or Cohen to modify his program to count
available diagonals (which I believe will reduce search
more than enough to pay its freight at least when  N  is large),
and see if anything is left of the original program.

∂15-Aug-82  1108	JMC  
To:   pwegner at BBNA  
I forgot to say that there is a large class of almost linear solutions


for the non-toroidal case.  Starting with  ((
((1,2),(2,4)), continuing by knight's moves to the top, then
proceeding to the bottom of the next column and continuing up
by knights moves works when  N == 0,4 mod 6.  Since
it avoids a long diagonal it extends to solutions for
N == 1,5 mod 6.  N ==  2 mod 6  is
harder, but the  result of starting in   (1,1)
and proceeding linearly by knight's moves, which fails to be a
solution, because it uses the main diagonal twice, can be modified
by shifting the 4th queen all the way to the right and pulling
the top queen back to its row.  This works for  N ==  2 mod 6
except for  N = 8.

∂21-Aug-82  0000	JMC  	Expired plan  
To:   JMC    
Your plan has just expired.  You might want to make a new one.
Here is the text of the old plan:

I will be at IBM Yorktown c/o John Cocke 914 945-2150 and at Tarrytown
Marriott until Friday Aug 13.  From Sunday till Saturday Aug. 21, I'll
be at AAAI and LISP conferences in Pittsburgh.  Then home.

∂21-Aug-82  2222	JMC  
To:   pwegner at BBNA  
More on n queens

	While I was on the trip and had no access to a computer, I
experimented with the  n  queens problem and found another heuristic
that cuts down the search to the extent that all solutions
of the 8 queens problem were found found with less than 100 backtracks.
The key point is to find ways to eliminate squares from consideration
and to eliminate enough squares so that a square that must be in any
further solution can be found.  The resources method that I found for
((1 1) (1 3)) is not often applicable although I found more occasion
for it in 10 queens with which I also experimented, getting all the
solutions following  ((1 1) (1 3)).  The new method of eliminating
squares is to find a square that sees all unoccupied squares in a row
or column (or necessary diagonal or other necessary set more rarely).
Such a square cannot have a queen on it.  In most positions after 3
queens have been placed on the 8 queen board, such squares can be
found.  Since eliminating some of these squares reduces the number
in a row or column, this may make it possible to eliminate more
squares.  If all squares in an essential set are eliminated, there
is no solution, and if all but one are eliminated a queen may be
placed that won't cause backtracking.  Sometimes backtracking has
to be carried to the placing of 4 or even 5 queens, but usually 3
suffice.  It is important also to remember that one can switch
from scanning a row to scanning a column and vice versa at any time without
risking the loss of solutions.  Also I used symmetry very heavily.
Namely, one can eliminate any position that contains as a subset
a position that is isomorphic to a position all of whose continuations
have been studied.  Thus after all the continuations of  ((1 1)) have
been studied, the corner squares can be removed from the board.

	In my opinion, with these heuristics a program on a micro
computer might beat a program on a Cray on large boards.

∂21-Aug-82  2309	JMC  
To:   chandrasekaran at RUTGERS  
I'm sorry we didn't get a chance for a real conversation at the AI
meeting.  I still think that a full numerical simulation of the plant
with facilities for modelling various accidents will provide a tool
for the AI program to make experiments with.

∂21-Aug-82  2348	JMC  
To:   FFL    
Can you get me a dozen or so ordinary manila file folders?

∂23-Aug-82  1330	JMC  
To:   FFL    
Please tell whomever that Keith Clark is KXC and charged to my ARPA.

∂24-Aug-82  1411	JMC  
To:   TOB    
I think it was Scheinman.

∂24-Aug-82  1418	JMC  
To:   LGC, RPG    
I would like to hear about your work.  So would Keith Clark. When?

∂24-Aug-82  2022	JMC  
To:   RPG    
Are you back?

∂25-Aug-82  1017	JMC  
To:   LGC    
Keith Clark is a computer scientist from Imperial College in London
and is visiting for 3 weeks starting this past Monday.  He is interested
in what is going on, and is a good head, and I thought I would combine
my update with his.  I guess a day or two after Labor Day would be fine.
Clark, KXC is currently sitting in Jussi's chair.

∂26-Aug-82  0023	JMC  
To:   LLW at SU-AI
How does one day next week (you name it) look for coming out?

∂26-Aug-82  0953	JMC  
To:   llw at S1-A 
Thursday it is then.

∂30-Aug-82  1452	JMC  
To:   BCM    
I'm afraid I don't have time to read your paper soon.

∂30-Aug-82  1544	JMC  	cancellation of trip    
To:   Colmerauer at MIT-MULTICS  
Unfortunately, I have been to too many conferences recently to face
another at this time.  Moreover, I'm too far behind in preparations
for the Fall quarter here.  I regret that you'll have to replace me
as a speaker to the industrial part of the conference.

Please acknowledge receipt of this, since I'm not certain the mail
system won't swallow it.

∂04-Sep-82  1531	JMC  
To:   ken at MIT-AI    
Please tell Sten-Ake that I have decided not to review Swedish AI.

∂04-Sep-82  1701	JMC  	RA81 price    
To:   reid at SU-SHASTA
When we conversed recently, I thought you to say that the price of
the RA81 was $60K for 4 gigabytes, which is a great buy.  Your message
of July 3 implies $50K for 1.4 gigabytes, which, as I said at the time,
isn't as good a buy as the CDC disks offered by Foonly.  Which is correct?

∂06-Sep-82  2249	JMC  
To:   RPG, LGC    
 ∂06-Sep-82  2211	RPG  	Meeting  
To:   JMC, LGC    
Lew tells me we have an appointmentwith you to discuss the Advice
Taker at 1pm wednesday afternoon. I have to be in Livermore until
at least noon that day, so either later in the day or later in the
week would be better for me.
			-rpg-
Let it be later in the day unless Wednesday is much better.  Included
in the meeting is Keith Clark, and Thursday is his last day.  I thought
Lew had arranged it with you.

∂07-Sep-82  1727	JMC  
To:   ME
Thanks, Marty.

∂08-Sep-82  1315	JMC  
To:   reid at SU-SHASTA
 ∂08-Sep-82  0952	REG  	the DEC RA81 disk system
The price is more than we hoped, but it may be a good deal anyway:

The most economical package is called the RUA81-EA.  For $55,000,
there are three RA81 disks, a cabinet, and a unibus interface (UBA50).
Total capacity is 3 * 456 Mbytes = 1.368 G bytes.  $40,200/GByte.
About 4 months ARO.

∂08-Sep-82  1640	JMC  
To:   FFL    
Send Marshall Windmiller, International Relations Program
San Francisco State Univ., San Francisco, CA 94132
a short biography

∂08-Sep-82  1804	JMC  
To:   csd.armer at SU-SCORE 
My teaching schedule is correct.

∂09-Sep-82  0053	JMC  
To:   BCM    
I don't know, Mr. Bones.  Why are Prolog and socialism compatible in Hungary?

∂09-Sep-82  1329	JMC  
To:   FFL    
Mr. Jed Harris
Data General
62 Alexander Drive
RTP, North Carolina 27709

Dear Mr. Harris:

	The problem with my report seems to be that two pages are
interchanged, namely the pages beginning "3. Reducing ..." and the
page beginning "a. next(yellow,blue).".
Thank you for calling it to my attention.  As I said on the phone,
there are a some additional results, and if I write them up, I'll
send it to you.

	Sincerely,

∂10-Sep-82  0109	JMC  
To:   FFL    
AAAI was $113.50 not $95.00 according to cancelled check.

∂10-Sep-82  0124	JMC  	new home terminal? 
To:   DEK    
I need to get a new home terminal for using mainly SAIL.  I'm not
sure what I'll get, perhaps an Ambassador with suitable keyboard
or perhaps a SUN with suitable keyboard.  Are you, by any chance,
needing to improve your home terminal situation at this time?

∂10-Sep-82  1214	JMC  
To:   JJW    
lisp.rpg[up,doc] doesn't exist.

∂10-Sep-82  1620	JMC  
To:   TOB
CC:   JMM   
Now that Jitendra works for you, you should find space for him.

∂13-Sep-82  1135	JMC  
To:   atp.bledsoe at UTEXAS-20   
Yes, I'll do it.

∂13-Sep-82  1453	JMC  
To:   TOB    
It's Jitendra.

∂14-Sep-82  1315	JMC  
To:   ME
What are your intenitions with regard to fixing the XGP?

∂14-Sep-82  1713	JMC   	LOTS Computer Facility 
To:   JJW    
 ∂14-Sep-82  1707	Marilynn Walker <CSD.MWALKER at SU-SCORE> 	LOTS Computer Facility
Date: 14 Sep 1982 1653-PDT
From: Marilynn Walker <CSD.MWALKER at SU-SCORE>
Subject: LOTS Computer Facility
To: csd-faculty at SU-SCORE
cc: csd.mwalker at SU-SCORE

Any faculty wishing to use LOTS for a class must fill out a questionaire
before class can be put on the computer.  Questionaires may be picked up
in my office.

Marilynn
-------

∂14-Sep-82  1713	JMC  
To:   ZM
 ∂13-Sep-82  2343	RSF  	MTC qual 
To:   JMC
CC:   RSF   
Hi. Has a definite date for the next MTC qual been determined yet?
Also, have there been any changes in the reading list?
	Ross.

∂14-Sep-82  1815	JMC  
To:   RPG    
Since GLS wants to continue maintaining Common Lisp Manual, that's fine.

∂14-Sep-82  1831	JMC  
To:   RPG    
COMMON[E82,JMC] is a draft of a message or letter to Kahn.

∂14-Sep-82  2342	JMC  	garbage on Datamedia    
To:   ME
From time to time there are fits of large amounts of garbage on
my Datamedia.  Is this the fault of the telephone line, of the
Datamedia or of the equipment at Stanford?  The errors are all
in transmission from the computer to the terminal.

∂15-Sep-82  0023	JMC  
To:   ME
I suppose it's the modem then, because hanging up and trying again
didn't seem to help last night, although it doesn't seem to occur
equally on all calls.  I notice that when it's bad, the receive
light flickers, when I'm not doing anything and when the WHO
line isn't being rewritten.  Is there a good way to check the
modem?

∂15-Sep-82  0128	JMC  	noise    
To:   ME
The problem seems to come and go.  Now it's much better than when I
sent you a message earlier.  Maybe I'll suffer on for the time
being.

∂15-Sep-82  1036	JMC  
To:   FFL    
Please put the account numbers I asked for in GOLUB.3 and Scribe it.

∂15-Sep-82  1038	JMC  
To:   CT
Come around any afternoon and look for me.

∂15-Sep-82  1102	JMC  
To:   TOB    
I need to talk to you about an administrative matter.

∂15-Sep-82  1307	JMC  
To:   ME
AP is dead

∂16-Sep-82  1512	JMC  	getting together   
To:   llw at S1-A 
My contract, or at least my badge, expire September 30.  I would
like to get together before then to discuss, among other matters,
whether it is mutually useful to extend them.

∂16-Sep-82  1549	JMC  
To:   buchanan at SUMEX-AIM 
I have no reservations.  However, it might be nice to get in exchange
some amount of access to their on-line system.

∂16-Sep-82  1653	JMC  
To:   FFL    
Please print cs206[e82,jmc] and send it to Alice Lundin, 110B Sequoia.

∂17-Sep-82  1130	JMC  
To:   FFL    
Well, I've forgotten what I wanted it for, but I suppose I should look at it.

∂17-Sep-82  1459	JMC  
To:   ME
CC:   RPG, MLB    
I agree with RPG that MLB's SAIL account should be maintained.

∂17-Sep-82  1629	JMC  
To:   FFL    
Please make and bind two copies of my phon[1,jmc].

∂17-Sep-82  2303	JMC  
To:   minsky at MIT-AI 
Bruce Buchanan just told me that Comtex also proposed to republish
the Stanford AI Memos.  I told him I had no objections, but I hoped
that we would get some amount of access to his on-line data base
in return.  I have no desire to suppress any of the M.I.T. AI Memos.
It occurs to me, however, that some time in the 1970s it became
the custom among graduate students to copyright their works.
Presumably Comtex would have to get their permissions as well
to publish those memos that are copyrighted.

∂17-Sep-82  2358	JMC  
To:   RWF    
Do you have a copy of the paper on non-determinism you mentioned at dinner.

∂18-Sep-82  0119	JMC  
To:   FB at SU-AI 
What is your present work phone.  

∂18-Sep-82  1104	JMC  	visiting and plans 
To:   FB at SU-AI 
I'll call.  To change a plan, just type
PLAN <cr>
It will then prompt you for a new plan as for MAIL.

∂18-Sep-82  1440	JMC  
To:   llw at S1-A 
OK, let me rely on you to send me a message when it is convenient to
get together.  Weekends are usually ok also.

∂18-Sep-82  1659	JMC  
To:   RPG    
Is there any kind of defstruct in Maclisp?

∂18-Sep-82  1721	JMC  	defstruct
To:   RPG    
Well I see it has the same name, but a simple attempt to use it
got a complaint about an undefined function.  What must I do do
get the package?

∂18-Sep-82  1723	JMC  
To:   ullman at SU-HNV 
Tuesday noon ok with me.

∂20-Sep-82  1342	JMC  
To:   ALS    
John Cocke said he would try to make it happen.

∂20-Sep-82  1355	JMC  	n queens 
To:   pwegner at BBNA  
It took me a long time, but I finally got a version of my Maclisp
n queens problem debugged.  It doesn't yet take symmetry into
account, and a different improvement is still to be made, but it
looks at only 310 terminal positions on 8 queens.  I expect to
get the number below 50.

∂21-Sep-82  1011	JMC  
To:   pwegner at BBNA  
A terminal position is either a solution or a non-extendable placement
of queens.  I suppose it's the same entity that you earlier reported
the reduction of from about 2000 to about 1000.  I don't have
a systematic way of finding non-continuable partial solutions.  I
just use the method of excluding squares that clobber what remains
of a rank or file.

∂21-Sep-82  1137	JMC  
To:   csd.armer at SU-SCORE 
Yoram Moses will join Weening and Creary will replace Weyhrauch.

∂21-Sep-82  1146	JMC  
To:   ullman at SU-HNV 
Sorry about Scotty, and we'll reschedule at your convenience.

∂21-Sep-82  2155	JMC  
To:   swinehart at PARC-MAXC
Rumor has it that you have a PUB producing Dover output?

∂21-Sep-82  2203	JMC  	Please send report 
To:   FFL    
Ascribing Mental Qualities to Machines to Brian Smith at Xerox PARC.

∂21-Sep-82  2205	JMC  	co-incidence of views   
To:   btsmith at PARC-MAXC  
Looking at your "Linguistic and Computational Semantics" suggested
sending you my "Ascribing Mental Qualities to Machines" which will
be done.  We seem to agree that much of the properties of
certain machines are best considered as ascriptions, although my
paper makes the point (and I have got to seeing whether you make it
too) that the reasonable ascriptions are often nearly unique.

∂22-Sep-82  1115	JMC  
To:   REG, ME
Let's make it work.  Among other things, we can then get rid of the KA
and retrieve the space.

 ∂22-Sep-82  0731	Swinehart at PARC-MAXC 	Re:   
Date: 22 Sep 1982 07:31 PDT
From: Swinehart at PARC-MAXC
Subject: Re: 
In-reply-to: Your message of 21 Sep 1982 2155-PDT
To: John McCarthy <JMC at SU-AI>
cc: swinehart

I always wondered at what point announcement turned to rumor.

Yes, our version of PUB (almost vanilla TENEX) produces Press format output.  It
is not entirely clear to me when our sources were last derived from the shared
sources that used conditional compilation to produce versions for different
systems -- probably earlier than 1976 -- so the sources may have substantial
incompatibilities from yours.

We first released these sources as part of the university Alto thing either in late
1980 or early 1981, but at a time when people had either given up hope or lost
interest in them.  So none of the people who serve as liaisons at the various
universities picked them up from Maxc at that time.  The files subsequently
drifted back off into our tape archive system.  Based on a request from MIT, I
fetched them back again this week and issued a new release message to the
liaisons. (Brian Reid is officially it at Stanford, but Mark Roberts does all the
work.  They're usually up on the state of Xerox-related stuff.)

It will take a bit of work with SRCCOM and the like to produce a version for,
say, SUMEX; somewhat more to make it run on TOPS-10 or the SAIL system. 
Also, I never found the results of driving any of the raster printers from PUB to
be quite controllable, but if it works for you on the XGP, the Dover shouldn't
cause trouble.

Hope that helps,

Dan Swinehart

∂22-Sep-82  1215	JMC  
To:   REG    
I agree with RPG about guest account for Griss.

∂23-Sep-82  1431	JMC  
To:   reid at SU-SHASTA
Dear Forest:

	This is a preliminary version of a proposal from the Stanford
University Computer Science Department requesting assistance from
D.E.C.'s External Research Program in the acquisition and development
of a file computer for the Department.  We believe that this project
will mutually benefit Stanford and D.E.C.
The general idea is the following:

	1. The Stanford Computer Science Department, like many research
and other institutions, operates a wide variety of computers all of
which need file storage.

	2. Present disk technology permits amounts of large enough
storage at reasonable prices so that one copy of any document prepared
by a person can be kept indefinitely and made available whenever wanted.
In particular, it is important to keep copies of all reports permanently
available.  Many files produced by machine are also small enough to be
kept.

	3. It is less expensive and more efficient to provide file
services on a specialized file computer.  This file system should
be able to grow with improvements in technology and in software for
keeping files.  Tape backup is still required and can best be done
on a large system.

	The system we plan would have the following characteristics:

	1. The file computer is a VAX 750 connected to the Ethernet.

	2. The disks are RA81s.  We propose to start with 4
gigabytes of storage and double it after a year.

	3. Two 6250 bit per inch tape drives are required for backup
and communication.

	4. The software we plan to develop will support file transfer
from the beginning and also work as a "leaf server", allowing a
program in any other machine to refer to a file without taking into
account whether it is on the machine's own disk or is on the file
server.  This will require software developed on our other machines,
and we anticipate that some machines will still be using explicit
file transfers when others are using the more or less invisible leaf
server.

	5. At some point the file server may perform some more
elaborate information storage and retrieval functions than just
the lookup of named files.

	6. At no time, however, will the file server have terminals
connected to it directly (except for its own system development) nor
will it do computation or users or user machines except that incidental
to storing and retrieving files.  Therefore, we expect to attain a
stable and reliable system in a short time.

	We believe that D.E.C. will eventually want to have such
a file system computer in its product line, and that collabortation
with Stanford will be mutually beneficial.

	The Principal Investigators of this project will be Professors
John McCarthy and Brian Reid.  We await your suggestions in putting
this proposal in more definite terms with respect to hardware and
financial relations.

	Sincerely,

∂24-Sep-82  1532	JMC  	Sail charges and LISP Machine Manuals  
To:   MLB
CC:   ME, REG    
1. The primary addressee for messages such as your last should be
ME or REG for matters of policy and LMG (Lynn Gotelli) for actual
setting up of billing, etc.  I predict that your offer to pay will
be cheerfully accepted.  I am not in charge of SAIL any more.

2. Is there some way students in my LISP course CS206 can buy copies
of the LISP Machine Manual?  I don't suppose that all of the 50 or
so students will want to buy them, but everything is much better
organized than in the Maclisp manual, which they are getting, so
it would be a valuable supplement.

∂25-Sep-82  0033	JMC   via SU-SCORE  
To:   ME
The phone lines haven't been working, i.e. 0081 and rλfriends

∂26-Sep-82  0121	JMC  	Lisp machine  
To:   rindfleisch at SUMEX-AIM   
I have started to use it. What is the schedule for connecting it to
some other machine so that we can have file transfer and printing?

∂26-Sep-82  1628	JMC  
To:   "@AAAI.MEM[1,JMC]" at SU-AI
Nils:
	What you say about the merits of the Washington Hilton seems
reasonable.  No doubt whatever those in favor of the University of
Maryland say will also seem reasonable.  I would favor your deciding
the matter yourself, or - even better - delegating the matter to the
General Chairman of the conference.  I cannot see that the merits
of the very best decision in the matter over a less carefully
pondered decision are worth the diversion of thought from the
formulation of general issues of artificial intelligence that the
AAAI might concern itself with and their presentation to the
Committee and the membership.  I am very concerned about getting
everyone tied up in matters that can be best settled by one or
a few people.  I hope that other Committee members will also favor
delegating the required authority. - John McCarthy

∂26-Sep-82  2218	JMC  
To:   ME
It looks like DCA is down.  No HOT and no phone-ins.

∂27-Sep-82  1607	JMC  
To:   kahn at USC-ISI
CC:   RPG at SU-AI, guy.steele at CMU-10A    
common[e82,jmc]		Draft message to Kahn about Common Lisp.

Dear Bob:

	I have become impressed with the Common Lisp effort, and I
think it has the potential to bring considerable order out of
chaos and to reduce duplication of effort.  I attended
the August Common Lisp meeting at CMU, and this impression was
confirmed.

	I have become concerned about the probable effect of
the departure of Guy Steele from CMU to Tartan Labs.  First,
he won't have much time, although at present he intends to
continue maintaining the manual and scheduling the meetings.
Second, if, as he hopes,
Tartan Labs does some Lisp implementation, he may no longer
have the perceived neutral position needed to reconcile the interests
of the companies involved in Lisp implementation.

	For these reasons, I wonder if you will consider supporting
some work at Stanford on Common Lisp.  Dick Gabriel would be the
direct head of the project with my advice and support, and the main
objectives would be the following:

	1. Maintaining the discussion and organizing the meetings.

	2. Supplementing Steele's efforts on the Manual and taking
it over if he becomes unable to continue.

	3. Starting the so-called Yellow Pages.  This would be
a library of useful Lisp functions, macros, documentation and
techniques.  In my opinion, there hasn't been a really good
library for any programming language since the demise of the
IBM 7094.

	There would not be another Common
Lisp implementation involved in the proposal.  Should we decide
to do this, it might be the subject of a separate proposal.

	In addition to some technical contributions, I think I
can increase the probability that the Lisp efforts will focus
on one language.

	This idea has the support of Guy Steele, so we won't be
at cross purposes.  Dick Gabriel thinks it will meet with the
support of the other people taking part in the Common Lisp
discussions, and we plan to float it with them if we get an
expression of interest from DARPA.

John McCarthy

∂27-Sep-82  1740	JMC  
To:   RPG
CC:   LGC   
OK, next Tuesday then.

∂27-Sep-82  1838	JMC  
To:   csd.lark at SU-SCORE  
I won't be here then.  However, I will be quite unhappy if you lose the
files I have in the machine in the course of this transfer.

∂27-Sep-82  1904	JMC  
To:   FFL    
Please send Jerry Severiano, 19126 Magnolia, Huntington Beach92646 short biography.

∂27-Sep-82  1904	JMC  
To:   FFL    
That's Saveriano

∂27-Sep-82  1930	JMC  
To:   ME
HOT and perhaps outside lines seem broken again.

∂29-Sep-82  1321	JMC  
To:   FFL    
Please answer my phone right asway if it rings.

∂29-Sep-82  2107	JMC  
To:   FFL    
Please cal the committee for me 212 695-2560 and tell them I endorse.

∂30-Sep-82  1032	JMC  
To:   CLT    
Donnelly came!!

∂30-Sep-82  1446	JMC  
To:   CLT    
Help!  Turn off your Donnelly reminder machine!

∂30-Sep-82  1627	JMC  
To:   csd.irmgild at SU-SCORE    
Yes, for lunch with Liskov, and I would prefer the after-lunch appointment.

∂01-Oct-82  1144	JMC  
To:   ullman at SU-HNV 
I'll be at your office at 12:30.

∂01-Oct-82  1638	JMC  
To:   ME
.r cksum
\BBOARD last written by JJW at 15:23 on Fri  1 Oct 1982 (92 pages).
File now has 22 fewer pages.
Changes to pages 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45
, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66
, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87
, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92 (of current file).
One or more pages, though unmodified, have moved.

COMMON.MSG[COM,LSP] last written by SYS at 05:53 on Fri  1 Oct 1982DRYROT -- EXPAND 
CODE GLUBBED UP
Halt at user 36315
↑C
.r ppsave

∂01-Oct-82  1639	JMC  
To:   ME
It happens reliably.

∂01-Oct-82  1642	JMC  	setf → set    
To:   common-lisp at SU-AI  
A serious objection to  setf → set  is that Lisp needs x s.t.
x is to setf as set is to setq.

∂01-Oct-82  1645	JMC  	T   
To:   kmp at MIT-MC    
Are you connected to T sufficiently to have me sent material concerning it.
I'm now actively thinking about new features for Lisp and the correction
of anomalies.