Quick way to get to bigger fonts

[sgharms]

I love big fonts, and I cannot lie.

In fact, I kinda need 'em or else I have to get my glasses.

It's well documented in the README.md that fonts are not customizable through Xdefaults and such. OK, fine. But what's the way to get lde to use a bigger font?

Looking at the historical documentation, it seems like there were some Interlisp primitives for working with fonts, but on my local installation, I'm in the common lisp environment by default and, accordingly, I don't seem to have those functions.

As you can seen, I'm trying to get my feet wet in terms of uhh...how to recover from a basic "Unbound variable" and the information I need (I believe) is in the Dinfo application ... whose text is punishing to read.

Any short path to victory here? I'd add, too, that since software is more generally not working than working, defanging recovering from interrupts probably belongs at https://interlisp.org/software/using-medley/il-using/

[nbriggs]

Start by typing "^" in the break window to abort the evaluation.

I don't think there's a default font size setting for DINFO - looking at the code it seems to be stored as a property of the DINFO data when the file was written. One of the nice things about all the source being available is that you can see what is going on and think about fixing it.

I'd suggest using overall scaling of the Medley window, since you seem to have a large or high-dpi screen, but that feature works OK for SDL display output but not not X11 output - and there are other things that need to be fixed to make SDL input and output better.

[Anzus]

Medley uses packages, so you can reference Interlisp-side symbols by prefacing with the IL: package reference.

Alternatively, you can open an Interlisp EXEC by right-clicking in the background, selecting Exec, and then sliding out the right to Interlisp

[sgharms]

All great advice. I’m comparing this to one’s first 5 minutes either clisp or sbcl; enter some expressions, hit an interrupt, pop back to main loop. I think the project should put that front and center to whet appetites (IMHO). It gets people experimenting.

My ability to help is greatly helped by a big font, will dig on how to unlock that. I didn’t realize that was not hidden away in the engine. #til

[Anzus]

We should probably highlight this on the webpages, but take a look at the primer: https://interlisp.org/documentation/Medley-Primer.pdf

[nbriggs]

One thing to know is that the middle button of your mouse is important. Middle button in the break window will give you a pop-up menu of things to do. Also, ? will give you the commands you can execute with type-in.

[pamoroso]

To get a larger font in most of the system I suggest evaluating (FONTSET 'BIG) at an Interlisp Exec or (IL:FONTSET 'IL:BIG) at a Common Lisp Exec. I said "most of the system" because it most notably doesn't affect DInfo. Also of note is that (FONTSET 'BIG) uses a font that renders the left arrow as _ and the up arrow with ^.

#116 is related.

[pamoroso]

As discussed in the April 9, 2025 external meeting I'll submit a PR to add instructions for recovering from errors to the Using Medley Interlisp Basics page of the project site.

[sgharms]

Hey @pamoroso , I was using the web version last night and I noticed that there doesn’t seem to be a way to get the EXEC to give us a CL window.

Other menu items with a disclosure triangle to the right reveal a submenu, but this one doesn’t seem to work contra the statement at the launcher which suggests it is supported.

Is it just me here? Or is this a non-obvious path that would fit in this documentation effort?

[pamoroso]

This is the EXEC submenu of the background menu I get on both Medley Online and Linux. Are you missing all or part of the submenus or functionality?

I recommend Xerox Common Lisp, in case you can access the option.

[sgharms]

@pamoroso Thanks so much for confirming I was doing something wrong. I re-bound the middle button on the mouse I was using and I, indeed, got the submenu you're showing. Sorry for the distraction.

Additionally, your message from earlier to use (FONTSET 'BIG) (FONTSET 'HUGE) has let me use Medley more comfortably. Thank you.

[pamoroso]

Glad it's working for you.

[pamoroso]

@sgharms I received a GitHub email notification about a post from you in this issue but I can't see here. If it got deleted can you please repost it here on GitHub?

[sgharms]

@pamoroso Thanks for the follow-up. I migrated this concern to Interlisp/Interlisp.github.io#277