Re: Will RMS be back to Programming now?

[Ruben Safir]

On 11/8/19 2:44 AM, Kaz Kylheku (gnu-misc-discuss) wrote:
> On 2019-11-07 22:58, Jean Louis wrote:
>> Dear Nala,
>>
>> Greetings to China. I am eating here with chopsticks...
>>
>> * Nala Ginrut <mulei@gnu.org> [2019-11-07 15:03]:
>>>
>>> Hi Jean!
>>>
>>> Yes, I totally agreed. And I actually meant RMS's health status,
>>> personally I don't think the fame was hurt by the recent comments
>>> misinterpretation or even the previous personal activity years ago.
>>> If his health status is permitted, then maybe he can do some advocating
>>> work by simple coding work, it's kind of advertisement. ;-)
>>
>> His programming was significant for the inception of GNU operating
>> system, as there were not many people to do it except of RMS.
> 
> There is a lot more to RMS than just GNU.
> 
> RMS was involved in Common Lisp; he was part of the initial Common Lisp
> group:[1]
> 
> In the 1970's, he evidently developed a Lisp dialect in which 0 was
> false and the empty list, rather than the symbol nil.[2]
> This might have helped inoculate Stallman against later having allergic
> reactions to C, which was adopted in a major way by GNU.
> 
> RMS invented something called phantom stacks[3]; I can recommend this paper
> for the writing quality alone. Any Lisp-head will appreciate it.
> 
> RMS co-authored some papers in the 1970's with Sussman and Steele.
> 
>   "He was special," recalls Gerald Sussman, an MIT faculty member and
> former
>   AI Lab researcher. Describing Stallman as a "clear thinker and a clear
>   designer," Sussman employed Stallman as a research-project assistant
>   beginning in 1975. The project was complex, involving the creation of an
>   AI program that could analyze circuit diagrams. Not only did it involve
>   an expert's command of Lisp, a programming language built specifically
>   for AI applications, but it also required an understanding of how a human
>   might approach the same task."[4]
> 
> ---
> [1] https://www.dreamsongs.com/Files/HOPL2-Uncut.pdf, P. 39
> [2] https://www.dreamsongs.com/Files/HOPL2-Uncut.pdf, P. 63
> [3] https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/6331
> [4] "Free as in Freedom", Chapter 6,
> https://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ch06.html
> 


Richard is a brilliant coder... Ive seen it with my own eyes.  His
understanding of computer systems, and coding is deep and broad.  If he
had to, he could probably step into any of the current projects and pick
them up himself.  There are no better coders

-- 
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002

http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com

Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013