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C00002 00002	ibm[s84,jmc]		Ideas for IBM Romp project
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ibm[s84,jmc]		Ideas for IBM Romp project

1. Can the editor be written in LISP and still be reasonably
efficient?  ↑d as in E is interpreted as (delete <current character>).
Thus each abbreviation is interpreted as a LISP function.
In writing macros, this might be useful.

2. Likewise for system commands.  While Romp is a single user computer,
the command language should be suitable for a time-sharing system in
view of hopes of getting a more or less compatible high powered computer later.

3. Besides experimenting with various and multiple displays,
we also want to experiment with various keyboards.

4. Arbitrary character sets.

Budget includes
100% Frost, 20 percent Gabriel, 10 percent McCarthy, 100% student,
20% secretary, money for equipment and computer time.
Some engineering time may be needed.

Equipment includes 8 Romps, i.e. each participant office and home.
Not all needed at once.  We can start with two.
We relax this if IBM balks.  Each Romp should have 4 megabytes,
but this can be relaxed at first.

Problems: network connection (can get by with phone line).
Avoid making one-of-a-kind hardware integral to the system.
This means modularizing the communication with it.