tunes poll -- please answer

[Francois-Rene Rideau]

*********** Identity ***********
** Name:
Francois-Rene Ban "Fare" Rideau Dang-Vu

with the accents, this looks like this:
===             ,     ,         _ v    ~  ^  ===
=== Francois-Rene "Fare" Rideau +)ang-Vu Ban ===
===     '                       / .          ===
(I'm longing for Unicode compliant tools...)
Just call me Fare (with acute accent on e) -- sounds like "Faerey"

** E-Mail address:
 rideau@clipper.ens.fr

** Network capabilities available:
 All of them (lucky myself !): e-mail, usenet news, ftp, telnet, www, etc.

** Auxiliary network addresses:
 e-mail: rideau@frmap711.mathp7.jussieu.fr (my daddy's)
 ftp://frmap711.mathp7.jussieu.fr/pub/scratch/rideau/
 http://does.not.exist.yet/but_will_soon/at_least_I_hope

** Physical address:
 6, rue Augustin Thierry
 75019 Paris FRANCE

** Phone Number:
   033.1.42026735
   Note that 033 is for France, and 1 for Paris' neighbourhood,
so they are not needed if you're near Paris !
   Be sure to call, if ever you come to Paris !

** Birth day (as the age changes every year !):
   Wednesday 28th november 1973

** Work/Study situation:
   Student in Computer Science at the "Ecole Normale Superieure" in Paris.
   Just graduated my master's thesis (translation from the B proof system to
the Coq proof system).



*********** Computer Background ***********

** computer languages fluently spoken (in order of decreasing interest):
  ML (in the french version of the CAML for Unix/MSDOS/MacOS),
  Coq (the CAML-based proof system),
  PostScript (some typed, extended FORTH),
  i386 assembly languages (including MASM, TASM, AS86 or GAS syntaxes),
  Lisp (emacs version or other dialects),
  FORTH (now ANS version -- a stack language),
  RPL from HP calculators (another typed FORTH),
  C/C++ (well not very recent C++ extensions),
  m4 (a better preprocessor than cpp),
  sh,zsh,csh (unix shells)
  Pascal (including Turbo Pascal extensions),
  6502 assembly,
  BASIC (from old AppleSoft to MS-Access basic)

** languages I'd like to know:
   any, including BETA, SELF, Perl, Napier88, SML, Miranda, Smalltalk,

** The language I'd like to use as Tunes' HLL:
   None of the above, and all of them at the same time: I'm convinced that
it's possible to build some language with enough control over itself (like
FORTH, but higher-level) so that just *any* language would be a sublanguage
of it...

** political *computer* opinions:
   Liberalist: for computing freedom, that is against any kind of computer
centralism or monopoly, but *for* money-making, as long as their is *fair*
concurrency.
   I have the same opinions outside the computer sphere, but I think we
shouldn't argue about that in the Tunes list. However, I think the book
"On liberty" by John Stuart Mill (1859) will enrich you about the moral
sciences in general.
   I also believe that correctness proof is the way to go for future
computer security when it is possible; when it is not, proof of statistical
security may be useful; and when none of those is possible, I'm sure nothing
can be done to achieve security, but secrecy (not even saying that there's
something, secure or not).

** Architectures/OS combination I can work on:
 - A i386 PC running MS-DOS or Linux, or Tunes/MOOSE/Joy/whatever
 - Some SparcStations running SunOS 4.1.3



*********** Parts of the system I'm ready to develop: ***********
** New protocols I'd like to design:
 - as quickly as possible, some automatic way to manage common files
  in a distributed project like ours !!!
 - configurable language converters for all existing languages.
 - A C -> Tunes HLL configurable meta-translator
 - A Linux -> Tunes set of configurations using the previous, to convert
  automatically Linux device drivers into Tunes device drivers ! Or perhaps
  more easily a VSTa -> Tunes converter.

** Existing protocols I'd like to implement:
 (yuck, none; bug see next section)

** Architectures I'd help write the low-level stuff for:
 - A raw (BIOS only) i386 compatible PC
 - some generic 32 bit workstation running a POSIXly enough OS (yuck)
 - A PC running Linux as a combination of the previous



*********** Parts of the system I'm eager others to develop: ***********
** New protocols I'd like to see designed:
 - a new Device-Independent User Interface for programmers for each
  computing construct.
 - a new Application-independent Program Interface for users.
 - any useful stuff.
 - All the ones in previous section, as I can't write them all alone...

** Existing protocols I'd like to see implemented:
 - Ethernet and TCP/IP networking support for the i386 and other hardware
  platforms (if we can't wait for the Linux|VSTa -> Tunes converter, or to
  do it manually while designing the semi-automatic thing).
 - All the device drivers from the Linux OS...

** Architectures I'd like the system to be ported to:
 - Windows and MacOS, to convince users of existing platforms to switch.
 - PReP, the PowerPC Reference Platform, for future standard platforms.
 - any light portable system, or any cheap computer platform, so any
  one can use our system.



*********** Project Management ***********
** How much I am available:
 - I'm ready to sacrifice any time needed for the project, as long as I
  succeed those darn (but not too hard) exams so I do not get fired from
  school; this means I'll be less available in April and July.

** How I think the project could be managed better:
 - Each recursive subproject should have a document maintained by someone;
  the latest version should always be available by ftp, mail, rcp, and http.
 - to accelerate, we should publish even drafts and versions with bad
  spelling and grammar, so the latest ideas or always available. This won't
  do with mail/ftp/rcp, but would
 - One of us knowing html should teach it to the others.
  **Jecel, can you give us pointers ?**

** Sub-project I'm ready to manage:
 - any of the above that no one else will take (i.e. as few as possible),
  including the root project.

** What I think about the poll:
 - I forgot what other questions to ask, but maybe you could help me.
 - I voluntarily excluded diplomas from thisand personal history are just indicative and should influence
  any of us. Actually, they we need some innovative kind of spirit, not an
  academical one, so actual work, not diploma, is the only adequate way of
  judging each other on such innovative project.