[chicago-lisp] Recap of 4/18 Chicago Lisp Meeting

Thu May 1 20:24:37 UTC 2008

Recap of 4/18 meeting:
http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/recap-of-4182008-chicago-lisp-meeting/

*ITEMS OF BUSINESS*: **

*Name* - None of the name ideas got much support, so we're sticking with
Chicago Lisp until someone comes up with something awesomer. **

*Project* - No one had any ideas for or time to work on a project as a group
so that's also waiting for an awesomer idea.

*Server* - John and Craig both have servers where they can host things but
not allow remote access to. John has a basic homepage at
http://www.chicaglisp.org and has a mailing
list<http://https//www.chicagolisp.org/lists/listinfo/chicago-lisp-discuss>setup.
There might be a wiki in the future. Meeting announcements and recaps
will continue to be on Peter's Chicago Lisp
page<http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/chicago-lisp>and then cross
posted to the two mailing lists and the
chicagolisp.org site.

*Next Meeting*

*WHEN*: Friday, May 16th at 7pm. **

*WHERE*: TBD (suggest a place <chicago-lisp-discuss at chicagolisp.org>) **

*WHAT*: Lightning talks. The following people have signed up, more
welcome (email
Peter <http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/chicago-lisp> if interested or add a
comment at Coordinatr <http://coordinatr.com/events/home/3bbndi8iji>)

   - Grant Rattke - A simple object system using macros
   - Steve Githens - TBD
   - Dry runs from the people presenting at the Intro to Lisp Workshop

*Intro to Lisp Workshop*: We did some pre-planning and delegation. See details
here<http://www.pchristensen.com/blog/articles/announcing-intro-to-lisp-workshop/>.
**

*Presentation on Combined Object-Lambda Architectures (COLAs)*:

The inagural presentation of our group was about the work done by the
Viewpoints
Research Institure (VPRI) <http://www.vpri.org/>. The most recognizable name
associated with this is Alan Kay, Mr. Invent the Future himself. John
Quigley made an excellent slide
deck<http://www.pchristensen.com/20080418-jquigley-colas.pdf>(pdf)
where he reviewed the paper "Making
COLAs with Pepsi and Coke"
<http://piumarta.com/software/cola/colas-whitepaper.pdf>(pdf) by Ian
Piumarta and put into slightly more comprensible language.

This paper is for the Fundamental New Computer
Technologies<http://www.vpri.org/html/work/ifnct.htm>project at VPRI.
The aim of the project is to create a complete computing
system in 20,000 lines of code. This system would be everything from the
hardware to the UI and include both design and implementation. Having such a
compact system would be a useful exploration and learning tool, so every
part of it can be inspected and manipulated. They're currently 18 months
into a 5 year project but they already have made intriguing progress.

John's presentation was about the architecture of the self bootstrapping
system. I can't claim that I understood it all, or even most of it. I was
able to keep up mostly because I had come across VPRI's work on Jeff Moser's
blog earlier in the week so I was familiar with the overview. What I did
sort of grasp boggled my mind and definintely but VPRI on my technical
radar, if for no other reason than as a technical challenge to aspire to.

If you can understand everything in Piumarta's paper (or even in John's
summary deck), you're a whiz. If not, don't feel bad. I would recommend
reading the NSF proposal
<http://www.vpri.org/pdf/NSF_prop_RN-2006-002.pdf>(pdf) and the first
year progress report <http://www.vpri.org/pdf/steps_TR-2007-008.pdf> (pdf).
They're in more accessible, less technically deep language and they have
pretty pictures.

Thanks John for setting the bar high right out of the gate!

On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 10:09 PM, Peter Christensen <peter at pchristensen.com>
wrote:

> Fine with me too.  I'll have the recaps up this weekend - they're mostly
> written but I was waiting on the date for the workshop before I posted them.
>
> -Peter
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 9:11 PM, Craig Ludington <cl at craig.upholsters.us>
> wrote:
>
> > John Quigley writes:
> >  > I've tentatively scheduled the first Lisp Workshop for Saturday, May
> > 31, 2008 at 3:00pm at the Institute of Design[1] in downtown Chicago (right
> > by the Clark/Lake El stop).  More details to come, but I want to first
> > confirm that this date works with the various volunteers who will be
> > teaching.
> >
> > That date is fine with me.
> >
> > Craig
> > _______________________________________________
> > chicago-lisp-discuss mailing list
> > chicago-lisp-discuss at chicagolisp.org
> > https://www.chicagolisp.org/lists/listinfo/chicago-lisp-discuss
> >
>
>
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Peter Christensen
> http://www.pchristensen.com/
> peter at pchristensen.com

-- 
------------------------------------------------------
Peter Christensen
http://www.pchristensen.com/
peter at pchristensen.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mailman.common-lisp.net/pipermail/chicago-lisp/attachments/20080501/7c06f377/attachment.html>