Lisp Maintenance and Documentation Proposal

	Weyrauch complains of various problems in using the Lisp  1.6
and Ilisp systems.  These include:

1)	The lack of a system expert to consult when he has trouble.

2)	Bugs  in the Ilisp compiler, which has been modified from its
1.6 form.

3)	Lack of documentation beyond the user manuals.      He  lacks
instructions  for  building  the  Ilisp system, information about the
system functions available from Lisp, and other information he  feels
necessary  for  system  building  activities which go beyond straight
Lisp programming.

4)	Problems with the loader, and lack of documentation about its
strange behavior.

5)	Trouble with the edit and break packages.

6)	Need  to  impliment new interactive editing facilities either
within lisp or using the system editors, or both.

	In response to these needs, I propose the following.

1)	I am familiar with Lisp 1.6, and parts  of  Ilisp.      If  I
undertake to work on Lisp, I will acheive a thorough familiarity with
both, enabling me to answer Weyrauch's questions.

2)	I am prepared to produce thorough documentation of  the  Lisp
system. This documentation would take at least two forms.
	a) Completely commenting the existing code.
	b)  Preparing  a  "Maintenance  Manual"  for Lisp which would
enable a freshman maintainer or a "subsystem builder"  to  understand
the  areas  of the program which concerned him, with reasonable ease.
This  manual  would  include,  but  perhaps  not  be  limited  to   a
descriptions  of  the main Lisp system and such auxiliary programs as
the compiler, Alvine etc., routine by routine, and an  index  of  all
data structures, variables etc.     Which would explain the ifunction
of each, together with the conventions for its use.

3)	I am prepared to debug the code as it stands, without  making
major modifications.

4)	I am prepared to reimpliment or recode existing functions  of
the  system,  if this is considered desirable, either to remove bugs,
improve efficiency, or add features.

5)	I  am  prepared  to  undertake  special  projects such as the
construction of an "E link", a new  edit  and  break  package  within
Lisp,  modifications  to  the  loader  etc.,  after study of proposed
specifications for same.