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Lets LISP like it's 1959

linux.conf.au · Youtube · 257 HN points · 0 HN comments
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Youtube Summary
Kristoffer Gronlund

https://2019.linux.conf.au/schedule/presentation/153/

One of my favorite papers in computer science is the original LISP
paper by John McCarthy. Written in 1959, it describes something
mind-bending: The interpreter for a language in the language that it
interprets. If you understand this paper, you understand how
computation works.

A few years ago, I decided to implement the interpreter described in
the paper, and this project turned out to be surprisingly popular. In
this presentation, I'll show how to implement the original LISP
interpreter in C, and together we will marvel at its elegance.

linux.conf.au is a conference about the Linux operating system, and all aspects of the thriving ecosystem of Free and Open Source Software that has grown up around it. Run since 1999, in a different Australian or New Zealand city each year, by a team of local volunteers, LCA invites more than 500 people to learn from the people who shape the future of Open Source. For more information on the conference see https://linux.conf.au/

#linux.conf.au #linux #foss #opensource
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Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this video.
May 13, 2021 · 74 points, 3 comments · submitted by tosh
dang
Discussed at the time:

Let’s LISP like it’s 1959 [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19270886 - Feb 2019 (22 comments)

ElHacker
I really enjoyed this video. Thanks for sharing
DonHopkins
Back in the day we had to cut O's in half to make our own parenthesis.
Feb 28, 2019 · 183 points, 22 comments · submitted by DyslexicAtheist
wooby
If you're interested, it's also possible to run the actual original Lisp 1.5 on emulated hardware via SIMH.

See this page: http://web.sonoma.edu/users/l/luvisi/

I got it running on my Mac a few months ago. SIMH is on Homebrew.

qntty
Code on github: https://github.com/krig/LISP
akuji1993
Let's LISP again, like we did last summer!
tjr
The things we Lisped last summer, we'll remember AI winter long?
DyslexicAtheist
he is making a Lisp, he is checking it twice ...
globolglo
this was an excellent history lesson on multiple levels. The final personal remarks about how the speaker connects the ethos of open source to his family history was an unexpected turn.
leoc
Is Steve Russell still on hand to demonstrate the PDP-1 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View from time to time?
enf
He and Peter Samson gave the Spacewar demo last August 4th, on the Vintage Computer Festival day.
reikonomusha
If you’re interested in hacking on some modern Common Lisp code, Rigetti Computing (which sells access to quantum computers) open-sourced their SDK, which includes a high-performance quantum simulator called the QVM [1] and an optimizing compiler quilc [2] for their quantum programming language called Quil. All of it is written in CL.

[1] https://github.com/rigetti/qvm

[2] https://github.com/rigetti/quilc

yvdriess
There seems to be some attraction to CL for QC researchers. I also used CL for my PhD's QC compiler and VM. Although my low-lv QVM was written in C, it takes s-expr input. I'm a bit sad it wasn't cited by the Quil guys :p

https://github.com/yvdriess/mcc

https://github.com/yvdriess/qvm

Wyndtroy2012
Anyone that likes Lisp should take a look at Factor. Even simpler syntax (RPN instead of prefix, less parenthesis), Lispy generics, functional, procedural, scripting, arbitrary data literals, full of meta goodness, clean good small understandable library, batteries included, sub-languages, REPL + image + source files, low and high level. Inspired in Lisp, Joy, Smalltalk and Forth (and with some things in common with Rebol).
hk-mars
I am LISPing in this summer:)
openloop
Lets.
KineticLensman
I'm currently working through the implementation of my own personal Lisp, following the awesome MAL process [0]. It's instructive to compare the result with the language as defined in the early 60s and available to programmers then (e.g. as defined by the Lisp manual referenced in the video). One thing that immediately stood out was the use of GOTO ('GO' actually) in the early Lisp rather than some sort of loop or tail recursion.

Incidentally, I've been wondering what app I should write to test my Lisp. The obvious end-state mentioned in the MAL guide is to self-host a Lisp, but I'm thinking it would be more appropriate (and fun) to re-implement one of the early chatbots like ELIZA [1].

[0] https://github.com/kanaka/mal/blob/master/process/guide.md

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA

abecedarius
I had fun doing last year's https://adventofcode.com in my own Lisp dialect. It's a pretty big stress for a personal toy language, but not too out there.

(Added: the code: https://github.com/darius/squeam/blob/master/eg/advent-of-co...)

gekkonier
I would consider writing a small standardlib for your lisp. While writing it you will encounter things you can optimize perhaps.
selimthegrim
I too might have a couple things in mind. How do I get in touch with you (gp, KineticLensman although happy to hear from immediate parent too)?
KineticLensman
Cool! That is a great offer. If you watch my progress SITREPs at [0] you'll get a feel for when it might ready. I'm behind on the SITREP updates but I'm in fact just debugging macro expansion (step 8) at the moment.

[0] https://www.non-kinetic-effects.co.uk/blog/2019/01/21/MAL-2

nikofeyn
i read his comment as “[if i were you] i would consider...”.
gekkonier
Yes, I'm sorry. It was meant as an answer to 'Incidentally, I've been wondering what app I should write to test my Lisp.'
KineticLensman
My bad! And I can't even claim not to be a native-English speaker.

It is a good idea and in fact I'm already sort of going down that route. I'm finding that using macros to define new functionality (rather than extend the core set of built-in functions) is a good way to tease out implementation issues as they somewhat stress the underlying mechanisms.

I think my first lib functions will be IO-related.

cjallen88
The book Paradigms of AI Programming is available for free on github, and implements something like ELIZA in Common Lisp.

I really recommend it.

https://github.com/norvig/paip-lisp/blob/master/README.md

KineticLensman
Great recommendation, thanks
kwccoin
Waiting for it and can it port to multiple platform like pi, iOS, Andorid, browser ... etc. Obviously can be a joint effort but once the basic is done, we can have a new and refreshing effort.

I always think that why PAIP is great you always have this feeling like Star Trek NG. Suddenly you have a function that works. BTW, I think the other web sites http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/ would be good.

Not one person but if there is a basis we can grow the community, especially if one can port to Pi and iOS.

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