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

[Chris McCormick]

On Tue, Dec 20, 2005 at 04:20:11AM -0500, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
> 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

So?

> 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).

Thanks for the history lesson. :)

> > > 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)

True.

Using a small number of heavy duty processors to emulate real world
extreme computational parallelism is not scalable in my opinion.

Best,

Chris.

-------------------
chris at mccormick.cx
http://mccormick.cx