April 2008 - boston-lisp - mailman3.common-lisp.net

[boston-lisp] Next Boston Lisp Meeting: Tuesday May 27th 2008, 6pm at MIT 34-401B
by Faré 20 May '08

20 May '08

Next Boston Lisp Meeting: Tuesday May 27th 2008, 6pm at MIT 34-401B NB: ITA Software, a fine employer of Lisp hackers (full disclosure: I work there), has kindly offered to sponsor a dinner for our Monthly Boston Lisp Meeting. Please send mail to boston-lisp-meeting-register at common-lisp.net with a list of attendees so we may order the correct amount of food. Ivan Krstić will give a 25' talk about Security and Programming Languages. Ivan Krstić http://radian.org/ is notably the prized author of Bitfrost, the security architecture for the OLPC XO laptop. Greg Cooper will give a 50' talk about FrTime: A Dataflow Extension of DrScheme. Dataflow programming extends functional programming with time-varying values called signals. Signals provide a simple, declarative mechanism for expressing event-driven programs without callbacks or explicit side-effects. This talk will present FrTime, an extension of PLT Scheme with dataflow evaluation. The language's distinguishing features include an event-driven evaluation model, transparent reuse of Scheme code, support for reactive data structures, and integration with the DrScheme programming environment. The talk will include a demonstration of the language and programming environment, along with a discussion of the key design decisions and main ideas underlying the implementation strategy. Greg Cooper developed FrTime while he was a graduate student at Brown University, working with Shriram Krishnamurthi. He now works for ITA Software. Please note that the meeting is taking place at an unusual date, to accommodate for the availability of our main speaker. The Lisp Meeting with take place at MIT, room 34-401B. As the numbers indicate, this is in Building 34, on the 4th floor. MIT map: http://whereis.mit.edu/bin/map?selection=34 Google map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=50+Vassar+St,+Cambridge,+MA+02139,+USA PS: The previous Boston Lisp Meeting on April 22nd was a success with 40 participants, despite a few organizational glitches for which I apologize. Thanks a lot to all those who came. I hope we'll meet again and have more of those interesting conversations. PPS: We're still looking for speakers. We have a lot of potential speakers, but not enough confirmed speakers at scheduled dates. The call for speakers and all the other details are at http://fare.livejournal.com/120393.html PPPS: Please forward this information to people who would be interested. Please accept my apologies for your receiving this message multiple times. For more information, see our new web site boston-lisp.org. For posts related to the Boston Lisp meetings in general, follow this link: http://fare.livejournal.com/tag/boston-lisp-meeting or subscribe to our RSS feed: http://fare.livejournal.com/data/rss?tag=boston-lisp-meeting [ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ] Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning. -- Rich Cook

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[boston-lisp] Lisp / functional programming freelance experiences?
by Bruce Lewis 28 Apr '08

28 Apr '08

Someone who loves Lisp is asking about professional possibilities. Please share your experience here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=175116

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[boston-lisp] April 22 meeting
by brlewis＠ourdoings.com 23 Apr '08

23 Apr '08

TUE, APR 22: PETER DILLINGER ON ACL2S; HANS HÜBNER ON BKNR (Bruce Lewis) Peter Dillinger spoke about Theorem proving with ACL2s. ACL2, "A Computational Logic for Applicative Common Lisp", was recognized with the 2005 ACM Software System Award for its power and usefulness in verifying safety-critical applications. New users, however, found it difficult to use for a variety of reasons. ACL2s is an Eclipse-based development environment we have made to make ACL2 easier to learn and use. Peter C. Dillinger is a Ph.D. Student at Northeastern University, Panagiotis Manolios, advisor. Hans Hu"bner gave a presentation of The BKNR Common Lisp web application development environment. BKNR is a one-stop repository of open source Common Lisp modules used to develop and deploy web applications, featuring a pure Lisp transaction based persistence layer. He showed createrainforest.org as an example application, as well as a Google Earth version. Hans Hu"bner has been a hacker for over 20 years, and has discovered Common Lisp as his favourite programming language in 2001. He is a freelance consultant whose research interests include persistence systems and hardware to support dynamic programming. Illustrated at http://ourdoings.com/boston-lisp/2008-04-22 This message was put together in 38 seconds from ourdoings.com. http://ourdoings.com/

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[boston-lisp] audio files & podcast
by rob levy 23 Apr '08

23 Apr '08

Hi, I posted last night's audio here: http://www.robertplevy.net/boston-lisp/ Also, I have put up a basic xml feed using xml-emitter in Common Lisp. I have verified that it works in bashpodder, google reader, and opera's feed reader (probably works in the other applications too): feed: http://www.robertplevy.net/boston-lisp/boston-lisp-podcast.xml code that generates it: http://www.robertplevy.net/boston-lisp/boston-lisp-podcast.lisp Rob

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[boston-lisp] Reminder: [CFP] 5th European Lisp Workshop, July 7 2008, Cyprus
by Didier Verna 16 Apr '08

16 Apr '08

+------------------------------------------------------------+ | CALL FOR PAPERS | | 5th European Lisp Workshop | | July 7, Paphos, Cyprus - co-located with ECOOP 2008 | +------------------------------------------------------------+ Important Dates: **************** Submission deadline (papers & breakout groups): May 04, 2008 Notification of acceptance: May 19, 2008 ECOOP early registration deadline: June 01, 2008 5th European Lisp Workshop: July 07, 2008 For more information visit http://elw.bknr.net/2008/ Contact: Didier Verna, didier(a)lrde.epita.fr Organizers ********** Didier Verna, EPITA Research and Development Laboratory, Paris Christophe Rhodes, Goldsmiths College, University of London Charlotte Herzeel, Programming Technology Lab, Vrije Universiteit, Brussel Hans Hübner, Software Developer, Berlin Overview ******** "...Please don't assume Lisp is only useful for Animation and Graphics, AI, Bioinformatics, B2B and E-Commerce, Data Mining, EDA/Semiconductor applications, Expert Systems, Finance, Intelligent Agents, Knowledge Management, Mechanical CAD, Modeling and Simulation, Natural Language, Optimization, Research, Risk Analysis, Scheduling, Telecom, and Web Authoring just because these are the only things they happened to list." -- Kent Pitman Lisp is one of the oldest computer languages still in use today. In the decades of its existence, Lisp has been a fruitful basis for language design experiments as well as the preferred implementation language for applications in diverse fields. The structure of Lisp makes it easy to extend the language or even to implement entirely new dialects without starting from scratch. Common Lisp, with the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS), was the first object-oriented programming language to receive an ANSI standard and retains the most complete and advanced object system of any programming language, while influencing many other object-oriented programming languages that followed. It is clear that Lisp is gaining momentum: there is a steadily growing interest in Lisp itself, with numerous user groups in existence worldwide, and in Lisp's metaprogramming notions which are being transferred to other languages, as for example in Aspect-Oriented Programming, support for Domain-Specific Languages, and so on. This workshop will address the near-future role of Lisp-based languages in research, industry and education. We solicit papers and suggestions for breakout groups that discuss the opportunities Lisp provides to capture and enhance the possibilities in software engineering. We want to promote lively discussion between researchers proposing new approaches and practitioners reporting on their experience with the strengths and limitations of current Lisp technologies. The workshop will have two components: there will be formally-presented talks, and breakout groups discussing or working on particular topics. Additionally, there will be opportunities for short, informal talks and demonstrations on experience reports, underappreciated results, software under development, or other topics of interest. Papers ****** Formal presentations in the workshop should take between 20 minutes and half an hour; additional time will be given for questions and answers. We encourage that papers be published on the website, to provide all participants with background information in advance. Suggested Topics: - New language features or abstractions - Experience reports or case studies - Protocol Metaprogramming and Libraries - Educational approaches - Software Evolution - Development Aids - Persistent Systems - Dynamic Optimization - Implementation techniques - Innovative Applications - Hardware Support for Lisp systems - Macro-, reflective-, meta- and/or rule-based development approaches - Aspect-Oriented, Domain-Oriented and Generative Programming Breakout Groups *************** The workshop will provide for the opportunity to meet face to face and work on focused topics. We will organize these breakout groups and provide for rooms and infrastructure. Suggested Topics for Breakout Groups: - Lisp Infrastructure Development and Distribution - Language Features (e.g. Predicate Dispatching) - Environments for creating web applications - Brainstorming sessions for new or existing open source projects - Persistence Systems - Compiler technology - Lisp on bare metal / Lisp hardware / Lisp operating systems - Compare and enhance curricula for computer science education Submission Guidelines ********************* Potential attendees are encouraged to submit: - a long paper (10 pages) presenting scientific and/or empirical results about Lisp-based uses or new approaches for software engineering purposes, - a short essay (5 pages) defending a position about where research, practice or education based on Lisp should be heading in the near future, - a proposal for a breakout group (1-2 pages) describing the theme, an agenda and/or expected results. Submissions should be mailed as PDF to Didier Verna (didier(a)lrde.epita.fr) before the submission deadline. -- Didier Verna, didier(a)lrde.epita.fr, http://www.lrde.epita.fr/~didier EPITA / LRDE, 14-16 rue Voltaire Tel.+33 (0)1 44 08 01 85 94276 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France Fax.+33 (0)1 53 14 59 22 didier(a)xemacs.org

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[boston-lisp] Reminder: please RSVP for next week's meeting
by Richard M Kreuter 15 Apr '08

15 Apr '08

Hello, If you plan to attend next week's Boston Lisp meeting and haven't yet sent a message to that effect to boston-lisp-meeting-register at common-lisp.net, please do so sooner than later. (The organizers use this number to decide how much food to order -- no registration, no food!) Thanks, Richard

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[boston-lisp] Next Boston Lisp Meeting: Tuesday April 22nd 2008, 6pm at MIT 34-401B]
by Dan Stanger 09 Apr '08

09 Apr '08

Hello All, This list is now functional: boston-lisp-meeting-register at common-lisp.net Dan Stanger Faré wrote: > http://fare.livejournal.com/121355.html > Next Boston Lisp Meeting: Tuesday April 22nd 2008, 6pm at MIT 34-401B > > ITA Software, a fine employer of Lisp hackers (full disclaimer: they > employ me), has kindly offered to sponsor a dinner for our Monthly > Boston Lisp Meeting. Please send mail to boston-lisp-meeting-register > at common-lisp.net with a list of attendees so I may order the correct > amount of food. No registration, no food. > > Peter Dillinger will give a 25' talk about Theorem proving with ACL2s. > ACL2, "A Computational Logic for Applicative Common Lisp", was > recognized with the 2005 ACM Software System Award for its power and > usefulness in verifying safety-critical applications. New users, > however, found it difficult to use for a variety of reasons. ACL2s < > http://acl2s.peterd.org/acl2s/ > is an Eclipse-based development > environment we have made to make ACL2 easier to learn and use. Peter > C. Dillinger is a Ph.D. Student at Northeastern University, Panagiotis > Manolios, advisor. > > Hans Hübner will give a 50' presentation of The BKNR Common Lisp web > application development environment. BKNR < http://bknr.net/ > is a > one-stop repository of open source Common Lisp modules used to develop > and deploy web applications, featuring a pure Lisp transaction based > persistence layer. Hans Hübner has been a hacker for over 20 years, > and has discovered Common Lisp as his favourite programming language > in 2001. He is a freelance consultant whose research interests include > persistence systems and hardware to support dynamic programming. > > Please note that the meeting is taking place at an unusual date, to > accomodate for the availability of the main speaker, who is coming > from Berlin (Germany) to talk to us. > > The Lisp Meeting with take place at MIT, room 34-401B. As the numbers > indicate, this is in Building 34, on the 4th floor. > > MIT map: http://whereis.mit.edu/bin/map?selection=34 > > Google map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=50+Vassar+St,+Cambridge,+MA+02139,+USA > > PS: The previous Boston Lisp Meeting on March 31st was a big success, > with over 70 attendants. Thanks a lot to all those who came. I hope > we'll meet again and have more of those interesting conversations. > > PPS: We're still looking for speakers. We have a lot of potential > speakers, but not enough confirmed speakers at scheduled dates. The > call for speakers and all the other details are at < > http://fare.livejournal.com/120393.html >. > > PPPS: Please forward this information to people who would be > interested. Please accept my apologies for your receiving this message > multiple times. > > For posts related to the Boston Lisp meetings in general, follow this > link: http://fare.livejournal.com/tag/boston-lisp-meeting > > [ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ] > - "If you're so smart, how come you're not rich?" > - "If you're so rich, how come you're not smart?" > -- narrated by Steven E. Landsburg, "The Armchair Economist" > _______________________________________________ > boston-lisp mailing list > boston-lisp(a)common-lisp.net > http://common-lisp.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/boston-lisp > >

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[boston-lisp] Recordings from previous meeting
by Faré 09 Apr '08

09 Apr '08

So we have * Video of Rahul Jain talking about DefDoc (thanks to Mark Dulcey) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1671235577423219425 * Audio of both Alexey Radul's and Rahul Jain's talks (thanks to Rob Levy) http://robertplevy.net/boston-lisp/ * Slides from Alexey Radul (thanks to Alexey, attached). [ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ] Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is not sinful -- just stupid.) -- Robert Heinlein, "Time Enough For Love"

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[boston-lisp] DefDoc now on Google Video
by Mark J. Dulcey 09 Apr '08

09 Apr '08

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1671235577423219425&hl=en -- try it out.

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[boston-lisp] DevDoc video
by Mark J. Dulcey 07 Apr '08

07 Apr '08

Video of the DevDoc presentation is available for downloading at http://www.buttery.org/DevDoc.mp4 -- be warned, it's a 71MB file. You can play it with QuickTime on Windows or Mac, or with various players on Linux. I don't recommend trying to play it inside your web browser -- you'll have to wait a long time before it begins to play. This location is TEMPORARY -- hitting my home connection with 71MB downloads won't fly long-term. I would like at least a couple of group members to check it out, however, and let me know what you think. In the future, I will try to use an off-camera microphone that is closer to the presenter, but the sound is intelligible. I would like to either have these hosted on the group web site in the future, or upload them to YouTube or other similar video hosting service. Technical details for the curious: it is encoded as MP4 video at 384Kbps ABR, and AAC audio at 128Kbps. The video is 320x240 pixels with a frame rate of 29.97fps, the native frame rate of NTSC video. It was edited with Sony Vegas 6 (I haven't upgraded yet) and encoded by the Main Concept MP4 encoder. The original source material was NTSC MiniDV video.

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