tunes todo list for february 2005

[Thomas Novelli]

How much work do you really want to put into this?  Looking at
tunes.org I'd say it's been comatose for 2 years, and meanwhile it's
become somewhat irrelevant because recent developments are right in
line with our goals.  I mean, just because of Firefox and Gmail, I
don't have much to complain about with computers anymore. 
Cross-platform and open-source is becoming the norm.  Something
equivalent to TUNES is just a matter of time.

I think we could speed up the process by taking the best and most
popular software/hardware and identifying ways to improve it, to
integrate it and simplify it within reason.  We can't do it all
ourselves, but we can communicate these ideas to people in the
industry/community who are in a position to accomplish something. 
Eventually things should settle out... that's the time to attempt the
"grand unification"... Of course you want to be ready for it... keep
up the basic research... just bear in mind that academic stuff alone
isn't going to have much impact in the wider world... I mean, what if
there's someone out there who could bring all this to fruition, but he
hates reading?

 - Tom


Fare wrote:
>
> Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 21:09:34 +0100
> Subject: tunes todo list for february 2005
> 
> Dear TUNESers,
> 
> here are a few things I officially commit to do for TUNES before the
> end of february 2005. Help welcome.
> 
> * rehaul the site www.tunes.org. Update the information, make it more
> readable, make it easier for a reader to identify what is interesting
> to him, if anything. Time lacking, I won't do anything fancy, just a
> clarification. Help welcome: writers to add/fix contents, HTML workers
> to make it fancy (CSS, etc.), Lispers to migrate it to some CL-HTML
> system, etc.
> Next step: change the main page to reflect recent changes.
> 
> * I'll write an article about the dynamic point of view on computing
> vs the static "cult-of-the-dead" view on computing. Help welcome:
> bibliographical data.
> 
> * I'll start and maintain an official TODO list for TUNES. Help
> welcome: edit it on the Cliki.
> 
> * I'll start and maintain a list of "term projects" related to the
> TUNES project. These should be coding projects that are doable by a
> student in a few months, whether in an academic or an autodidactic
> setting, and yield an immediately useful result. Your suggestions are
> welcome, as are your volunteering for one of them. The page previously
> announced on this list will serve as the basis for it:
>    http://fare.tunes.org/computing/term-project-proposals.html
> 
> * As far as my personal coding goes, I'll experiment further with the
> CL fare-matcher and quasiquote implementation, and packaging it all
> for asdf-install. Notable issues are the way that fare-matcher expands
> intermediate bindings, the way that quasiquote can work with syntax
> extension beyond sexp (things like vector, array or structure syntax).
> The former is mostly an implementation refactoring issue (though with
> implications in case fare-matcher is made to work with backtracking),
> and the latter is an interesting semantic issue with implications in
> any metalanguage. Help welcome: interesting tidbits on how this latter
> issue is handled in other metalanguages.
> 
> I invite those of you who have interest in the TUNES project to help
> me on these, to suggest improvements to this plan, and to chide me
> should I fail to stand by it. You may also commit to doing things for
> TUNES.
> 
> I'll come back to you at worst on Saturday 2005-03-05 for an update on
> those commitments.
> 
> [ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ]
> God, Grant me
> the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
> the courage to change the things I can,
> and the wisdom to know the difference.