I just came across the 1960 "Lisp 1 Programmer's Manual", which I'd never seen before: As this manual clearly describes, both integers and floats had _property lists_ and were _uniquized_.
Q: When did Lisp numbers lose their property lists ? Q: Did any other Lisps keep property lists for numbers ? Q: Were Lisp property lists ever used for interesting things: e.g., storing primality, factors, etc. ?
I had Lisp in a programming course as a freshman in 1961 and began programming seriously in Lisp under Roland Silver in 1965. I do not recall property lists on numbers. I suspect it was a quick implementation hack for the first version and was eliminated in favor of some faster way of doing arithmetic. There was a detailed discussion of the development of Lisp at a fest colloquium held for McCarthy's 64th birthday. I cannot immediately put my hands on the festschrift but will see what I find when it turns up. Of the people mentioned, McCarthy and Silver are dead. Edwards retired from NSA and moved to the south to work with a company that translates the bible. Someone told me he was dead. I no longer think that is correct but I don't know how to locate him. Others on the list may be in contact with Steve Russel. David Luckham is here at Stanford unless he has moved. The others I do not recall. I would be inclined to ask Joel Moses who did a lot of work on the CTSS Lisp system in the late 1960s.
Q: Also, who is "K. Maling", who is credited with writing the Lisp 1 READ function ?
I don't know that either but there is no K. Maling in the MIT Alumni Register. There are three Malings through 1994 George C. Maling '53 Joan M. Maling '73 Walter H. Maling '69 The only K. Maling I find using Zabasearch is a Kathleeng Maling who is about sixty and thus too young. Whit