Fwd: Recap for Medley External Meeting, Feb 25, 2026

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Herb Jellinek

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Feb 25, 2026, 3:23:25 PM (2 days ago) Feb 25

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-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	Recap for "Impromptu Google Meet Meeting"
Date:	Wed, 25 Feb 2026 20:13:01 +0000
From:	Fathom <no-r...@fathom.video>

Meeting Purpose Review project site updates, debug technical issues, and sync on individual progress. Key Takeaways - Project Site PR Approved: The project site update PR is approved for merge. Dark mode was disabled due to code block rendering issues, and a minor nav bar bug was deemed low-priority. - IntEdit Files Diagnosed: IntEdit errors on LODCADS library files (e.g., nccasecluster.tad) are likely caused by byte-alignment issues in their piece tables, which mispoint to image object data. - Font Conversion Strategy Defined: The new font conversion strategy is a two-phase process: 1) create base Medley fonts from BDFs, then 2) use the system's coercion mechanism to fill in missing glyphs from other fonts. - Debugging Blocked by Legacy Code: Debugging is difficult because legacy code relies on global variables (*STANDARD-INPUT*) instead of passing streams, which breaks context when evaluating code within the Help executive. Topics Project Site Updates - PR Status: Approved for merge. - Dark Mode: Disabled. - Reason: Rendering issues with code blocks. - Rationale: A minor issue not worth delaying the merge. - Nav Bar: A minor bug prevents the horizontal scroller from working on small screens. - Rationale: Low priority; a simple workaround exists. - README: A major rewrite was pushed to GitHub. - Rationale: The team will review it before Bill merges the PR. "Reviving Medley" Page Updates - Character Encoding Section: Requires correction. - Internal: MCCS (Medley Character Code Standard). - External: Transitioning from XCCS to UTF-8. - Clarification: Unicode is for external file handling, not internal string representation. - Build Process Section: Update to reflect current tools. - Current: GCC, Clang, CMake, and Makefiles. - Goal: Consolidate to a single build system (e.g., CMake). - New Content: - Modernization: Add details on recent UI improvements (scrolling, clipboard, window management). - Backward Compatibility: Emphasize the goal of preserving source-level compatibility to avoid breaking old code. IntEdit File Errors (Issue 2504) - Problem: Files from the LODCADS library (e.g., nccasecluster.tad) fail to open in IntEdit with "non-numeric" errors. - Diagnosis: The files are likely corrupted, not in an unsupported format. - Hypothesis: A byte-alignment issue in the file's piece table causes it to mispoint to image object data (e.g., H-Rules), leading to a parsing error. - Significance: The files document interesting, non-standard NoteCard types (e.g., "plot card," "history card") that would be valuable to recover. Roundtable: Individual Progress - Frank (Ubuntu 24.04 Upgrade): - Plan: Upgrade the Medley Docker image to Ubuntu 24.04. - Constraint: The host server remains on Ubuntu 20.04. - Risk: Building release assets on 24.04 could create incompatibilities with the 20.04 host. - Ron (Debugging & FileMaps): - Debugging Challenge: Legacy code relies on global variables (*STANDARD-INPUT*) instead of passing streams, which breaks context when evaluating code within the Help executive. - FilePackage Bug: Found a bug where the FAST option in GetDef is undocumented and unused. - Proposal: Always use the file map cache if available to improve performance. - Herb (HTML Stream & XCCS): - HTML Stream Bug: Found a memory corruption bug in his HTML stream code, likely in the character width lookup, which causes a "U-Raid" crash. - XCCS Standard: Will host the XCCS standard document on the project site to create a stable URL for an IANA submission. - Matt (BDF Font Conversion): - Finding: Converting ~3,000 BDF fonts directly to Medley display font files did not cause a VMIM crash. - New Strategy: Adopt a two-phase process using the system's coercion mechanism to fill in missing glyphs from other fonts. - Cursor Bug: Still experiencing a mouse cursor bug in WSL. - Next Steps: Test on native Ubuntu and use a minimal C test program to isolate the issue. Paolo (Project Visibility & Research) - FreeDOS Article: The Medley project was featured first in a FreeDOS article on open-source projects needing documentation. - Research: Found 7 new papers on Interlisp-D systems (e.g., knowledge-based systems, simulations). - Observation: Google Scholar shows >5,000 results for "Interlisp" vs. <2,000 for "Maclisp," suggesting greater influence or deployment. Next Steps - Bill: Merge the project site PR after team review of the README. - Paolo: Submit a PR to update the "Reviving Medley" page with corrections on character encoding, build process, and a new section on backward compatibility. - Ron: Add the files from Issue 2504 to the list of corrupted files for future investigation. - Herb: - Debug the memory corruption bug in the HTML stream code. - Host the XCCS standard document on the project site to enable an IANA submission. - Matt: - Implement the two-phase font conversion strategy using the system's coercion mechanism. - Debug the cursor bug by testing on native Ubuntu and using a minimal C test program. - Nick: Create a minimal C test program for Matt to debug the cursor bug.