Defining new functions with the TTY editor

[pamoroso]

How should I invoke the TTY editor to define a new function? EDITF apparently allows only to edit existing functions:

4_ (EDITMODE 'TELETYPE)
SEDIT:SEDIT
5_ (EDITF NOT-YET-DEFINED)
Could not find fns definition for NIL.Could not find fns definition for 
NIL

[nbriggs]

That's a bug. See the manual entry for EDITE, item 8.

[pamoroso]

Did you mean the manual entry for EDITF? The EDITE one has no items.

I'll create an issue for this discussion.

[nbriggs]

Yeah, sorry - fat fingers on phone. I'd note that this bug is at least 25 years old - it's present in the internal/venuesysouts/lisp.venuesysout from 2000.

[pamoroso]

With Interlisp-10 at SDF I can't edit a new function with EDITF either:

[KANKAN] PUBLIC:<~>@ INTERLISP:LISP
INTERLISP-10  31-Dec-84 ...
Hello.
3_(EDITF NEW.FUNCTION)
NEW.FUNCTION not editable.

How were new functions supposed to be edited with the TTY editor? By defining a stub function with DEFINEQ and then calling EDITF?

[nbriggs]

See the 1986 Interlisp Reference manual page 17.53 for the operation of EDITF, which seems to come down to... it needs to be defined before you can use EDITF on it, so writing a stub function and then calling EDITF is a good approach.