Lisp with Java

I was very pleased with myself for finding Armed Bear Common Lisp; you've gotta love that name. You get a cool editor as well!! For someone like me who works in a mainly Java shop the excellent looking integration of Lisp and Java is cool and potentially very useful for prototyping (I wonder if Bill Clementson knowws about this?). (I'm also rather more attracted to building GUI's in Swing as Lisp is has so many different GUI libraries and many are rudimentary, only run on some platforms etc.)

A bit more research brought up a Java Foreign Language Interface for Common Lisp and a Lisp-friendly interface to Java Servlets by Rich Hickey - both look good.

Then it turns out that Lispmeister mentioned the latter 2 over 2 months ago and I missed it:Lispmeister.com : Lisplets

More to play with!!

PS: Yes, Bill Clementson does know about these !! Article in June or so; I wonder if he has done any more with any of them ?

God bless Poland!

Via Webmink: NoSoftwarePatents.com :: View topic - (EN) 21 DEC 04: Big Surprise in Brussels, No Swpats 4 Xmas!

More on DSL's and Lisp

Bill Clementson's Blog: DSL and Metaprogramming Resources

An eventful year for Lisp

I started looking at Lisp in the middle of the year, after a single course on it way back on my BSc course. I discovered that there was a lot more to it than I thought. This timeline is intersting though, as it shows a lot of progress has been made, just this year.ALU Wiki : 2004 Lisp Timeline

My sense is that there is a lot of activity around Lisp at present. I certainly feel that the renaissance of Virtual Machines and the rise of Domain Specific Languages is bringing the computer world back towards Lisp.

Cringley on the IBM PC/Lenovo deal

This analysis certainly makes more sense than IBM buying Apple!
PBS | I, Cringely . Archived Column: "Winners in this deal are IBM, Lenovo, AMD, and Dell. Lenovo instantly doubles its market share. AMD eats away just a little bit more at Intel's power base. Dell, as the true PC market leader, will rely on its lower overhead to further hurt HP.

Losers in the deal are HP, Intel, and Sun. Especially Sun. Those guys are in trouble."

Successful Lisp arrives

My copy has arrived!Lispmeister.com : Buy "Successful Lisp" at amazon.com

It is in beautiful condition, the cover looks great. Opening it up is a joy: the pages are crisp and new, the font lovely.

My only gripe? Each right-hand page has a tiny left-hand margin and a big right-hand one. I can see the spine coming under a lot of pressure as I struggle to see the first word of each line.

I ordered mine early from Booksurge.com. No complaints about speed of delivery, but the web store experience was scary, and response from customer service was non-existent. When I input all the details and confirmed the order, up popped a record of the transaction with a blank order number, and a list of things which I hadn't ordered, and the wrong total in dollars !!! Eeek. Phone number given on the site didn't work - eeek! Three e-mails to the address given - no response at all. Ohno!! I was getting a mite agitated I can tell you.

I was somewhat comforted when VISA confirmed the correct amount for Successful Lisp had actually been deducted ( and not the bogus amount) and that there were no other unaccounted for transactions.

Anyway, I am pretty much convinced I have not been phished and the book is here.

One last thing: David Lamkins ( author) should refrain from dyeing his hair (IMHO) !!

Model Transformation and Eclipse

Something new from IBM:alphaWorks : Model Transformation Framework: "What is the Model Transformation Framework?
The Model Transformation Framework (MTF) is a set of tools that helps developers make comparisons, check consistency, and implement transformations between Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) models. The framework also supports persistence of a record of what was mapped to what by the transformation; this record can be used to support round-tripping, reconciliation of changes, or display of the results to a user."

If the models can be expressed in EMF then they can be transformed.

Lisp and Domain Specific Languages

Bill Clementson's Blog: "Forget syntax, forget library availability - the 'Lisp Difference' is that it allows you to create whatever domain-specific language you need for the problem space that you're working in."

Doesn't sound like Microsoft's DSL Workbench - still nothing wrong with that!!

Google Suggest Cool!

Hmm, languages as object ....

Logix: Multi-Language Programming | Lambda the Ultimate

Butchery at the Beeb

Ouch, 10% to go.

This looks odd:BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | BBC boss details 3,000 job cuts: "Almost 2,000 workers are expected to move from London to Manchester, to make the corporation more reflective of UK audiences."

I think "to reduce costs" might have been more honest! If you want to reflect a broader geography, you spread out. But no doubt that reduces management control, economies of scale or something.

Jonathan Schwartz speak with fork tongue?

I listened to the Gillmor Gang podcast for the 25th November (trendy , heh?). Mr Schwartz was that and came over as witty and made some insightful comments. He also made assertions about Red Hat which Steve G and co. never really called him on. And he kept talking about "Open", not alsways making clear which concept he was on about -Open Source or Open Standards (can I have both please?)

Now this:Slashdot | Sun's COO Pretends Linux Belongs To Red Hat

I hope Steve Gillmor asks Jonathan to back up some of his assertions: for instance, which benchmarks are showing Solaris trouncing "Red Hat's Linux" ?

Neat gizmo - Flash Linux

Portal - Flash Linux Home Page. 256M USB stick Linux with Gnome

IP Policy : the tyranny of the lobbyists

Democracy isn't just about everyone being able to vote. Who influences and drafts legislation? Who gets to sit on influential bodies endorsed by a government. We have a once every 4 or 5 year "nuclear option" to keep our elected representatives in-line - big industry has continual, well-financed influence. And they are using it: FT.com / Comment & analysis / Columnists - James Boyle: A natural experiment:

"So how do we decide the ground-rules of the information age? Representatives of interested industries come to regulators and ask for another heaping slice of monopoly rent in the form of an intellectual property right. They have doom-laden predictions, they have anecdotes, carefully selected to pluck the heartstrings of legislators, they have celebrities who testify - often incoherently, but with palpable charisma - and they have very, very simple economic models. "

Found via Lessig

Java to Python and back again

Interesting and provocative article. The referenced text is actually from one of the comments at the end, so keep reading!dirtSimple.org: Python Is Not Java: "But what's much more frustrating is the drop in language level; so much of what's done for you in Python needs to be put together painfully and explicitly in Java. And don't get me started on static typing..."

Found via Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants - James Robertson who comments: "Everything he said about Python relative to Java goes for Smalltalk as well."

Any Lisp comments anyone?

Lisp Comic Book

Thanks to LispMeister for this fun and useful link !!Lispmeister.com : Lisp Comic Book

I love the new terminology for macros - they are not like macros in any other language, so a new name seems appropriate to me (but I'm a newbie!)

The master speaks

Sun Proposes New Open-Source License: "'One of the beauties of the GPL,' he said, is that 'you have to totally give up control over the project (because everybody literally has the same rights to the whole project), but exactly because nobody can control it, it makes everybody feel like true owners.'"

Think Lisp

Sure this will be a great help to Lisp adoption:The Think Lisp Repository