Fexpr the Ultimate Lambda

[Dale Schumacher]

Fexpr the Ultimate Lambda (http://bit.ly/v6yTju) a treatise on
evaluation, in honor of John McCarthy.

John Shutt’s Kernel language, and its underlying Vau-calculus, is a
simplified reformulation of the foundations of the LISP/Scheme family
of languages. It is based on the notion that evaluation should be
explicit, patterned after Fexprs, rather than implicit, using Lambda.
The results is a powerful well-behaved platform for building
extensible languages. Not extensible in syntax, but in semantics. We
have implemented the key mechanisms of Vau-calculus using actors. The
actor-based evaluation strategy introduces inherent concurrency
prevasively throughout the evaluation process.

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[Dale Schumacher]

Yes, absolutely!  I've read that paper numerous times.  Unfortunately,
I wasn't able to cite all of the branches of the LISP family tree.

I _did_ cite Piumarta's work on Maru.  His extensible base is much
smaller Shutt's, but Kernel provided a better illustration of
actor-based evaluation techniques.

On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 1:19 PM, Alan Kay <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hi Dale
> Check out "The Early History of Smalltalk" to see the same insight about
> Lisp and how it was used to think about and define and implement
> Smalltalk-72.
> Cheers,
> Alan
>
> ________________________________
> From: Dale Schumacher <[hidden email]>
> To: Fundamentals of New Computing <[hidden email]>; CAG
> <[hidden email]>; Programming Language Design
> <[hidden email]>; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> <[hidden email]>
> Sent: Friday, November 25, 2011 10:05 AM
> Subject: [fonc] Fexpr the Ultimate Lambda
>
> Fexpr the Ultimate Lambda (http://bit.ly/v6yTju) a treatise on
> evaluation, in honor of John McCarthy.
>
> John Shutt’s Kernel language, and its underlying Vau-calculus, is a
> simplified reformulation of the foundations of the LISP/Scheme family
> of languages. It is based on the notion that evaluation should be
> explicit, patterned after Fexprs, rather than implicit, using Lambda.
> The results is a powerful well-behaved platform for building
> extensible languages. Not extensible in syntax, but in semantics. We
> have implemented the key mechanisms of Vau-calculus using actors. The
> actor-based evaluation strategy introduces inherent concurrency
> prevasively throughout the evaluation process.
>
> _______________________________________________
> fonc mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> fonc mailing list
> [hidden email]
> http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
>
>

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Dale Schumacher]

Actually, I hope to cite the Smalltalk work when I write about
extensible syntax, rather than just extensible semantics.

On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 1:53 PM, Dale Schumacher
<[hidden email]> wrote:

> Yes, absolutely!  I've read that paper numerous times.  Unfortunately,
> I wasn't able to cite all of the branches of the LISP family tree.
>
> I _did_ cite Piumarta's work on Maru.  His extensible base is much
> smaller Shutt's, but Kernel provided a better illustration of
> actor-based evaluation techniques.
>
> On Fri, Nov 25, 2011 at 1:19 PM, Alan Kay <[hidden email]> wrote:
>> Hi Dale
>> Check out "The Early History of Smalltalk" to see the same insight about
>> Lisp and how it was used to think about and define and implement
>> Smalltalk-72.
>> Cheers,
>> Alan
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Dale Schumacher <[hidden email]>
>> To: Fundamentals of New Computing <[hidden email]>; CAG
>> <[hidden email]>; Programming Language Design
>> <[hidden email]>; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
>> <[hidden email]>
>> Sent: Friday, November 25, 2011 10:05 AM
>> Subject: [fonc] Fexpr the Ultimate Lambda
>>
>> Fexpr the Ultimate Lambda (http://bit.ly/v6yTju) a treatise on
>> evaluation, in honor of John McCarthy.
>>
>> John Shutt’s Kernel language, and its underlying Vau-calculus, is a
>> simplified reformulation of the foundations of the LISP/Scheme family
>> of languages. It is based on the notion that evaluation should be
>> explicit, patterned after Fexprs, rather than implicit, using Lambda.
>> The results is a powerful well-behaved platform for building
>> extensible languages. Not extensible in syntax, but in semantics. We
>> have implemented the key mechanisms of Vau-calculus using actors. The
>> actor-based evaluation strategy introduces inherent concurrency
>> prevasively throughout the evaluation process.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> fonc mailing list
>> [hidden email]
>> http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> fonc mailing list
>> [hidden email]
>> http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
>>
>>
>

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org