[PD] Re: synthesizers / drums / effects ..etc

Mathieu Bouchard matju at artengine.ca
Tue Dec 20 10:20:11 CET 2005


On Thu, 15 Dec 2005, Chris McCormick wrote:

> > 1. what's the link between LISP and abandoning vonNeumann arch ?
> That architecture separates storage and processor. LISP blurs the line
> between the data and the algorithm.

The first sentence of the Wikipedia article on vonNeumann arch reads:

« The term von Neumann architecture refers to a computer design model that 
uses a single storage structure to hold both instructions and data. »
 -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture

IMHO (and not in that webpage), the blurring of the line between data and
algorithm dates back to the 1830's, when Charles Babbage and Ada Byron
were busy inventing that concept that we now call software, under the name
"the analytical machine". The revolutionary idea was that programs needed
not be made of hardware (cogwheels or relays) anymore -- they could be
made of pure information, which they called "machine language".

Byron also came with that idea that programs would be easier to reuse and
had that literary nature so that collections of reusable procedures would
be called "libraries" (that was her word).

> > 2. what's the link between what you are replying to and abandoning 
> > vonNeumann arch ?
> You indicate that what you want is more 'meta' and less specific.

People can be meta all they want in a vonNeumann context. It's just that
most of today's programming languages have been strongly influenced by the
concept of adding a strong program-vs-data distinction back into the game.
(for better or worse; and yea, I don't approve)

 _ _ __ ___ _____ ________ _____________ _____________________ ...
| Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801 - http://artengine.ca/matju
| Freelance Digital Arts Engineer, Montréal QC Canada




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