Re: [Axiom-developer] Back again.

[C Y]

--- Stephen Wilson <address@hidden> wrote:

> Greetings All,
> 
> I participated in this community for a while in 2004-2005.  Simply
> put, I became discouraged due to my own lack of decisiveness, and in
> part due to a lack of `direction' I sensed in the community as a
> whole.  I have followed this list virtually every day since that
> time.
> 
> I am compelled to rejoin and contribute once again.

Welcome back :-).

> I realize that the goal of a Lisp translation runs contrary to many
> opinions on this list.  My hope is that having more Boot code
> documented will be seen as beneficial.  As for the Lisp rewrite, I
> would love to hear from anyone who shares an interest in this
> direction.

I also share that interest, although not the needed expertise (as yet,
anyway - that's what learning is all about :-)

I have two concentrations at this stage that look achievable - one is
to provide the primary web functionality in Lisp (this one is fairly
close to working, and can handle at least basic files) and teach the
Lisp asdf system to load pamphlet files directly using the lisp based
web package.

Once those components are in working order, I hope we can begin to
provide logical asdf packages of components of Axiom, and load them
like normal lisp libraries.

At the moment, I'm focusing on asdf.lisp itself - converting it into a
pamphlet file looks like the best way to understand it well enough to
map pamphlet ideas to asdf ideas.

I know less about the mechanics of converting boot to lisp and what
good ideas would be, although I would be curious about using existing
work in Lisp to make life easier.  Making linedit work on the targeted
Lisp platforms might let us avoid the need for clef, for example.

The SPAD compiler itself I would like to see at least separated out,
although I suspect any substantial improvements to it would be a major
task.  I am very much interested in Gaby's work on the definition of
the SPAD language and what can be done using that as a foundation. 
Perhaps work like META http://www.cliki.net/meta could be used to
advantage, although I don't know enough about this type of programming
to properly evaluate it.

Anyway, this is a direction I at least find interesting.

Cheers,
CY


 
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