Intro and Meta

[William Pearson]

Hi

I thought I'd say a little about myself and where I think this list
might go and how I am going to run it. Personally I'm interested in
the software side of things. Mainly because if we can specify a good
language for it we can implement a VM or simulation for the
unconventional computer and start coding for it. The more running and
interesting code we have for an unusual architecture the easier we can
convince people that developing the actual hardware is worthwhile. I
am silicon biased, but if someone thinks of something better my ears
are open.

However the possibilities of the hardware will inform the programming
languages, so hardware is still interesting.

I don't think we will get the exact right programming language
straight away but for example I hope someone is inspired to define the
equivalent of C for the new arch. C/posix assumes a single point of
entry into the program, that it is called with arguments, that other
programs exist in separate memory spaces managed by the operating
system.

The new language might make some of these assumptions

- that a "program" is persistent in processor localised memory (e.g.
stored in memristors).
- that there is no operating system to manage separate memory spaces/
virtual memory because on chip memory is cheap and there is a decent
security system in the arch
- that it can interact with other programs in many ways
- that it can and will modify its operation over its life time,
without having to write to disk and reload; because there is no
centralised disk.

There is nothing wrong with our current ways of specifying
computation. It is merely in the way the life-cycle and ecology of the
computer program that needs to be re-imagined.

However I don't see this list as designing the language by committee,
merely as a melting pot where our ideas can inform each others. Some
of the possibilities might not be explored in whatever comes from
this. If some person/group does come up with a first draft of
something I think promising, I'll shift my attention to trying to fund
raise and build public awareness. Current working title for this
campaign is "Reboot computing".

I'm currently writing a bit more about some topics I find out in the
questions document. My plan is to improve sections and then post them
to the list for discussion. Once I've done a couple I'll advertise
this list a bit more.

Currently I am allowing anyone to join. I'll move to a request invite
only, and allow people to invite, when spam becomes a problem.

Will