Re: Lisp in hardware

From: Alexander Burger (abu_at_software-lab.de)
Date: 08/09/04 

Date: 9 Aug 2004 13:50:35 GMT

nikodemus@random-state.net wrote:
> Alexander Burger <abu@software-lab.de> wrote:

> "Interpreter" is a word with an accepted meaning. Deciding that only a
> single class of interpreters are really interpreters is either stupid or
> arrogant.

You are citing out of context. Nobody said that.

> > This argument appears very often in such discussions. Do we really need
> > arrays, vectors and strings, as is often proudly stated about the
> > benefits of "modern" Lisp?

> Yes.

Why?

> > Again, this is again a matter of "execution speed" versus "power to the
> > programmer" and "ease of handling". I gladly abstain from the first if I
> > can gain the other two.

> This sounds very much like you've been deeply influenced by Paul Graham
> and Arc.

Not at all. Heard about him just recently.

> He may be kook, but he's a smart kook: like he has said, there
> will always be applications where there is never enough computing power
> available. Those applications also tend to be quite hard, and therefore
> very good candidates for lisp -- but with your approach the computation
> that would have taken "just" a month will take a years, or several days
> instead of an hour, etc.

Hm, you didn't get my point. I don't write slow applications. There are
intelligent ways to optimize. It's just stupid to optimize too early and
end up using a bloated system.

- Alex 

-- 
   Software Lab. Alexander Burger
   Bahnhofstr. 24a, D-86462 Langweid
   abu@software-lab.de, http://www.software-lab.de, +49 821 9907090

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