HLL and misa...

[garth zenie]

On Fri, 16 Jun 95 2:47:47 MET DST  Francois-Rene Rideau wrote:

>    Have you tried object systems over Scheme ? Not so standard as CLOS,
> but may be useful. Check some from my Language review page, others
> from the Scheme repository (all that's accessible from following URL:
> "http://acacia.ens.fr:8080/home/rideau/Tunes/Review/Languages.html").

i have looked over your page.  very nice.  you have a whole lot of
information there.  i do not have the time currently to look over it
to the depth that i would like.  hopefully this weekend i will have a
spare hour or two in which i can go thoroughly over your stuff.

>    Wow ! I wish I could raise that much money ! How did you do ?

we got all of it.  we've only used a tiny bit.  we're really saving up
to but a computer in the fall.  

we were very surpised to get it.  our funder seems to have more faith
in us than we have in ourselves! :)

>    Hey ! If you're looking for help and it can be used as a pre-thesis
> training period, count me in !

i am interested in discussing the language with you.  i was very
surprised when i read your pages because they mirrored almost exactly
our thinking about language and OS.  so far very few people understand
the ideas that we have.

>    Could you expand a bit more ?

ask rainer for the messages i sent him.   i went into a little more
detail.  though not as much as i need to.  i haven't had a chance to
update the rough spec in a very long time.  i hope to do taht soon
(our funders would like us to have an up to date revision by the end
of summer). 

>    Well, though I agree s-exps have advantages, and may be used at first,
> I don't plan to do that in TUNES, because it kinda links too much the
> semantics to a particular representation. The Dylan people chose not to
> continue with s-exp anymore, and I think they're right...

please eloborate.  this was a _very_ big debate for us.  i was
orginally on the side of developing a new syntax but eventually was
swayed.  perhaps it is not fair to say that our syntax is
s-expressions but is descended from them.

it is very useful in AI (which i study) to be able to modify your code
during runtime.  s-exp are currently the best code structure for
dynamic modification of code.  i am not saying that it is ideal but i
think that it would be useful to develop a defined structure (which of
course would be redefinable like everything else, and be an object,
...) so as not to inhibit this runtime modification.  i know of no
other syntax which gives you this power like s-exp.

>    Have you compared to what's currently in the TUNES HLL ?

yes.  i am very impressed with what you have done.  we came to a lot
of the same conclusions.  

>    Please send more !

i will!  this weekend.

perhaps it is time to catch up on my french (i studied for 4 years and
then russion for two - it has been a long time).

are you studing in france?  where do you live?

-- garth