The compiler maintains a database of caller information. The editor uses this information to let you edit each of the callers of a function. As a result, you don't need concordances, program listings, or separate CREF (cross-reference) programs. The compiler maintains a database of source location information, which the editor uses to let you edit functions by name. The Debugger uses the source location information to offer single key com- mands that invoke the editor on the function for the current stack frame. As a result, you are freed from awareness of the names of files or particular file structures involved in any software project. The compiler maintains a database of argument list information that the editor, Debugger, Lisp Listener, and other tools use to offer fast online help concerning arguments. You do not need to memorize details of call sequences since you can always check quickly when you need to know. The editor maintains a structured view of source code information, enabling it to offer commands for compiling only the definitions that have changed in any particular buffer. You can make a number of related source changes and then ask to compile only the definitions that have changed. During compilations, the compiler maintains a database of warnings and messages. The editor uses this database to offer a command for dealing with the warnings. It puts the message in one buffer and the relevant source code in another. That way, you are freed from the burden of writing down errors or having to find the relevant definitions manually. The configuration manager, SCT, maintains a database of the file names and file versions that constitute any software system and of the various compile- and load-time dependencies between the files. This database is used in full system compilations, in incremental patching, in system distribution, and so on. As a result, you are freed from manual operations and potential costly errors in shipping software products. In addition, many operations can be performed on "a system" without your needing to remember any of the files that it contains.
Copyright Symbolics Inc. 1990
I had my hands on a Symbolics workstation in the early ’90s, playing with CLIPS for automating wire harness design and with Monte Carlo simulations for queueing in manufacturing processes.
