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GeneralRe: The resurgence of functional programming Pin
Kent Sharkey11-Nov-20 19:26
staffKent Sharkey11-Nov-20 19:26 
GeneralRe: The resurgence of functional programming Pin
Greg Utas12-Nov-20 1:28
professionalGreg Utas12-Nov-20 1:28 
GeneralRe: The resurgence of functional programming Pin
Gary R. Wheeler12-Nov-20 2:27
Gary R. Wheeler12-Nov-20 2:27 
GeneralRe: The resurgence of functional programming Pin
Greg Utas12-Nov-20 2:33
professionalGreg Utas12-Nov-20 2:33 
GeneralRe: The resurgence of functional programming Pin
Gary R. Wheeler12-Nov-20 5:09
Gary R. Wheeler12-Nov-20 5:09 
GeneralRe: The resurgence of functional programming Pin
Greg Utas12-Nov-20 5:14
professionalGreg Utas12-Nov-20 5:14 
GeneralRe: The resurgence of functional programming Pin
Gary R. Wheeler12-Nov-20 10:31
Gary R. Wheeler12-Nov-20 10:31 
GeneralRe: The resurgence of functional programming Pin
trønderen12-Nov-20 6:37
trønderen12-Nov-20 6:37 
I tried to learn Lisp inbetween my studies, forty years ago, with little success. It was available on a VAX 780 (with an unbelievable 1 megabyte of RAM...) - but the VAX wasn't very available for hobbyists Smile | :)

We had a 16-bit mini for hobbyist use. Some guy had made a Lisp interpreter for that CPU architecture around 1975, which we hoped to use. That failed miserably: In 1975, no one would dare to even drean about more than 32Ki words (64Ki bytes) of RAM - you would never need more than 15 address bits. In 1975, paging logic was an expensive option that very few could afford; an address was sent directly to the memory bus. With at most 32Ki words of physical RAM, the uppermost address line disappeared in thin air. So this guy got the idea to use this "wasted" bit in every pointer to hold a flag related to the pointer, rather than wasting another word to hold this flag.

In the early 80s, paging logic had become standard; it was no longer an option, and the OS depended on it. This "wasted" address bit was no longer wasted, so the flag in the Lisp interpreter was now interpreted as the most significant address bit. One of my fellow students were in contact with the guy, begging for "this small change", but was told that it was so deeply interwoven with the interpreter logic that changing it would require a complete rewrite, which was out of question.

We never got any Lisp interpreter on the hobby machine. Lisp wasn't that hot, so we didn't really push it that much.
GeneralRe: The resurgence of functional programming Pin
GuyThiebaut13-Nov-20 4:07
professionalGuyThiebaut13-Nov-20 4:07 
NewsSamsung develops a slim-panel holographic video display Pin
Kent Sharkey11-Nov-20 10:30
staffKent Sharkey11-Nov-20 10:30 
News6-year-old becomes world's youngest computer programmer Pin
Kent Sharkey11-Nov-20 9:00
staffKent Sharkey11-Nov-20 9:00 
GeneralRe: 6-year-old becomes world's youngest computer programmer Pin
Nelek11-Nov-20 9:14
protectorNelek11-Nov-20 9:14 
GeneralRe: 6-year-old becomes world's youngest computer programmer Pin
honey the codewitch11-Nov-20 9:35
mvahoney the codewitch11-Nov-20 9:35 
GeneralRe: 6-year-old becomes world's youngest computer programmer Pin
raddevus11-Nov-20 9:40
mvaraddevus11-Nov-20 9:40 
GeneralRe: 6-year-old becomes world's youngest computer programmer Pin
honey the codewitch11-Nov-20 9:44
mvahoney the codewitch11-Nov-20 9:44 
GeneralRe: 6-year-old becomes world's youngest computer programmer Pin
Nelek12-Nov-20 0:36
protectorNelek12-Nov-20 0:36 
GeneralRe: 6-year-old becomes world's youngest computer programmer Pin
raddevus12-Nov-20 2:35
mvaraddevus12-Nov-20 2:35 
GeneralRe: 6-year-old becomes world's youngest computer programmer Pin
Kent Sharkey11-Nov-20 9:53
staffKent Sharkey11-Nov-20 9:53 
GeneralRe: 6-year-old becomes world's youngest computer programmer Pin
raddevus11-Nov-20 9:37
mvaraddevus11-Nov-20 9:37 
GeneralRe: 6-year-old becomes world's youngest computer programmer Pin
Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter12-Nov-20 0:15
professionalKornfeld Eliyahu Peter12-Nov-20 0:15 
GeneralRe: 6-year-old becomes world's youngest computer programmer Pin
Greg Utas12-Nov-20 1:36
professionalGreg Utas12-Nov-20 1:36 
GeneralRe: 6-year-old becomes world's youngest computer programmer Pin
Dan Neely12-Nov-20 2:50
Dan Neely12-Nov-20 2:50 
NewsBreaking Changes in .NET 5 Pin
Marc Clifton11-Nov-20 8:35
mvaMarc Clifton11-Nov-20 8:35 
GeneralRe: Breaking Changes in .NET 5 Pin
Sander Rossel11-Nov-20 9:47
professionalSander Rossel11-Nov-20 9:47 
GeneralRe: Breaking Changes in .NET 5 Pin
#realJSOP13-Nov-20 0:15
professional#realJSOP13-Nov-20 0:15 

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