I may or may not have mentioned Apple Sauce on here before, but in case I havn’t; Apple Sauce is the Lisp implementation that I am writing.
Specifically, these are the main goals for Apple Sauce:
Use across a wide range of processor types
Greater portability across OSs
The ability to create executables easily for Windows, Linux, and Mac
Compiler for embedded microcontrollers
Ability to easily access the OS and to extend that access
Efiiciency in complilation
Greater ability to interface with C/C++ and Java libraries
Access to a large set of libraries
Why, because there are some things not easily done in Lisp without forking over $500+ for a compiler. My three major complaints are
Scheme is not as efficient as Common Lisp but has easy compilation into C and Java
Common Lisp is efficient but there are not standard libraries for useful things such as graphics
Again CL has to much depending on the implementation and things that should be common throughout are not
The point of Apple Sauce is to right these egregious wrongs.
What is “Stage 2″, I don’t know. I could be more aptly said I’m beginning “chapter 2″ of the book Lisp In Small Pieces by Christian Queinnec, so I don’t rightly know what I am going to do other than I will be adding to my Apple Sauce implementation. I’ll keep you updated as I work through stage 2.
What’s to come, definitely some Lisp code or, stuff on my projects: Apple Sauce, QuickSilver, Elements, etc., ideas for things that needs to be done or could be useful, and possibly reviews about different movies and books, but I want to keep that to minimum.
Starting in 2000, we began to question the validity of our votes. Can we really trust the machines that we use to not be rigged in some way? Even when the paper systems have trouble, how can we know that our vote was counted right? American democracy cannot work if the voting machines are vulnerable or prone to malfunctions. It attacks a fundamental core of our belief in “the system.” Some feel that we need to protest and demand better machines and more openness. I agree that we do need both, but I don’t think that demanding and protesting is the correct way to get these changes. People feel fine to just show that these machines don’t work but provide no solutions to the problem. Ultimately we need to appeal to capitilism. It is the reason these machines continue to be bought but also it can be the reason why they won’t. If we create a voting machine that has its internal hardware and software free to study, then we can know for sure that when we vote that it will be correct. What I purpose is an open voting machine standard certified by experts with the backing of an electronics company. If we can bring to market a viable opposition then we stand a better chance of seeing the opening of the voting system and the protection of the voter. The hacking community has more then enough ability to see this through all we need are people to see it through.
“I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory.” - John Adams.
No, this is not about the Matrix but matricies and the representation in Common Lisp. This last week I have been trying to write a matrix libray in Lisp. Being used to C/C++ I thought this would be no big deal, but I was wrong. The problem is that Lisp is a functional language and C/C++ is imperative. For those unfamiliar with programming langauge concepts it means that Lisp would prefer to create a new object base on an old one rather than modify the old one. This is problem because the traditional way of manipulating matricies is to edit elements in the object which is counter to Lisp’s functional philosophy. So there are two ways that I could write this. One, where use row-major order vector and then use functions that are called for side effect or two, I represent the matrix as a list of lists and construct new matricies with each function. I think that both have their advantages so instead of choosing one over the other, I am just going to write the matrix library with both ways.
It would be cool if I was one of those bloggers that had something worth saying, well I do but your not going to hear it hear because I don’t like blogging. This post is promise; a promise of hope and change. Ok, enough BS. In the coming days I will add more content to this site other than the few secret pages. updates on projects, experiments will be posted soon.
I guess this appropriate considering that this the first post, that I am listening to the song, and I really can’t wait until Watchmen comes out. Those bastards should pay for delaying it. Anyways, besides the fact that this is made using bloging software this is not a blog. Well at least its not supposed to be. What this is really for, is to store files, update the multitude of projects that I start and rarely finish and on occasion write things about philosophy. What you will not find is a web log. First and foremost I disdain them. My life is really not that interesting. Occasionally I will post my thoughts on movies, shows, comics, games or anything I really feel like at the time for no other reason than to keep the website updated. If your interested in my projects or are participating in one, congratulations, I will post links to them in these abstract posts. Watchmen is going to awesome.