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had…
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I’m getting somewhat peeved with the repetitive claims that C is so fast. It isn’t. it never was. It’s just that the language is fairly transparent down to the machine level so when you change somet…
Getting Started on OSX
Here's what I did, though perhaps a better order of steps exists: * Downloaded Emacs for OSX * Downloaded ClozureCL from the Mac App Store. * Downloaded Quicklisp * Ran ClozureCL, then "…
On type systems
From this thread, a perspective on types: My conclusion is that less strongly typed (i.e., dynamically typed) systems are the ultimate type systems, because they allow growth and change, while preser…
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NETSCAPISM /net-‘sca-,pi-z*m/ n (1995): habitual diversion of the mind to purely imaginative activity or entertainment as an escape from the realization that the Internet was built by and for someone…
Flaming Posts
Replace “usenet” with the “internet”, and this is (even more!) true today … Between two debaters, nothing may appear to change, but as soon as you consider the “lurkers”, and consider the e-mail that…
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What is interesting about this is that we can write procedures which construct other procedures. This is not to be confused with the ability to construct S-expression representations of procedures; t…
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If one constantly invents new combining forms to suit the occasion, as one can in the lambda calculus, one will not become familiar with the style or useful properties of the few combining forms that…
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Making that happen in a language design should involve some subtle shifts in the way data is conceptualized. That isn’t a digression in a discussion of types, because the way we conceptualize data ha…
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The first couple of weeks I learned JCL and the IBM mainframe. There were two old guys who worked there, my age today I imagine, and they worked on 6 batch applications simultaneously, making a single…
The Eric Naggum archive
I was too young to participate in these discussions when they happened, but it is particularly enlightening (IMHO) to comb through the "Erich Naggum archive". Sure, there is some of what we…
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But what about creative composition? In order to be creative one must first gain control of the medium. One can not even begin to think about organizing a great photograph without having the skills to…