Re: request: libguile to wrap getsid(2)

[Linas Vepstas]

2009/12/27 Thien-Thi Nguyen <address@hidden>:

> As years go by, i have come to venerate old code per se less and
> less.

Heh. As the years go by, I have come to venerate any code,
old or new, less and less.  It's always broken, and never actually
does what you want, anyways.

>  I think it would be cool to write tools to distill the
> essence of old code, recasting into new code.  That is what
> compilers do, after all...  Dreaming, i'd like to see compilers
> that go beyond:
>
>            compilation
>  source ---------------------> "executable" representation
>
> to
>
>  grok-db -----+<-------+
>               v        |
>            compilation |
>  source ---------------+----> "executable" representation
>
> where grok-db contains the analysis results of (this and other)
> source, both present and past.

Well, taking away two lessons from the recent past:
-- "optimizing" compilers try to "grok" some small portion of the
code, and re-arrange it in such a way that its more efficient.
The challange is to "grok" ever-larger pieces.

-- There are companies that specialize in taking :"legacy" code,
written in strange old language dialects, and automatically
modernizing/re-writing them to run on modern h/w.  I don't really
understand what the "old code" is, or exactly how much of the
re-write process is automated, but its apparently a big business
(i.e. big businesses that have lots of old code buy these things)
 I have a friend who works in this area, Jeff Wilkinson, perhaps
he can comment.

--linas