February 2008 - MSLUG - mailman.iro.umontreal.ca

Google Summer of Code
by Marc Feeley 13 Mar '08

13 Mar '08

Hello Gambit and Snow users. I will be applying to the Google Summer of Code program as a mentoring organization and propose projects for advancing the development of Gambit, Snow, and Termite. I'd like to start a collective brainstorming exercice to come up with a list of specific projects. If you are interested in participating as a student, please respond to this message (preferably on the mailing list). Please describe briefly what you would like to work on. If you cannot participate (e.g. you are not a student) but have project suggestions, then please speak up on the mailing list. Some projects ideas that come to mind: - native thread support - real-time/parallel GC - closer integration of Termite and Gambit - Gambit packages - web framework - documentation - François Pinard's projects (see MSLUG mailing-list archive) Marc

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Looking for an industrial partner for a research grant
by Marc Feeley 25 Feb '08

25 Feb '08

Dear Gambit users and MSLUG members, I am planning to submit a substantial research grant proposal which requires participation from industry. The grant will have a direct impact on the development of Gambit and related tools. I am currently looking for an industrial partner which can benefit from the project and which can participate in the research. The details of the research proposal will be developed with the partner. A cash contribution is **not** required, but a real involvement is necessary (for example: engineer's time to interact with the project members, equipment donation (multicore, FPGAs, ...), salary/space for an intern, etc). It is necessary to demonstrate impact on the canadian economy, so it is best if the partner is based in Canada or has a canadian branch. I am particularly interested in partners in the game industry (Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, ...), in web technology (Google, Amazon, ...), in embedded systems, telecommunication and hardware (Intel, AMD, Xilinx, ...). If you are interested please email me. The proposal must be submitted in a month an a half, so it is important to act soon. Marc

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Re: [MSLUG] Naughty Dogs used Scheme to create their latest game
by David St-Hilaire 25 Feb '08

25 Feb '08

mslug-request(a)iro.umontreal.ca wrote: > Hi again, > > first of all, apologies to Dan Liebgold for butchering his last name > in my previous email. > > Dan just wrote me and clarified an interesting point. In his words: > "We didn't use our own implementation of Scheme, we used PLT Scheme > and layered a language on top of it (including a set of SRFIs)". > > I think that it's very neat that they didn't have to write their own > implementation. Hopefully, we might get more technical details soon. > > > Guillaume Wow, I think this is really exciting to see that scheme could be used to create such a sucessfull game! ^_^ Thank you Guillaume for passing on this info! David

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Re: [MSLUG] MSLUG Digest, Vol 36, Issue 1
by David St-Hilaire 24 Feb '08

24 Feb '08

Hmm, that blitzweekend thing seems pretty interesting, as I could give us an opportinity to show that scheme can be used to develop some fully functional aps quickly... Does anyone have a good idea for the dev. of a new technologie? I'm sure Marc does... hehe David

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Naughty Dogs used Scheme to create their latest game
by Guillaume Germain 23 Feb '08

23 Feb '08

Hi everybody, I saw a presentation yesterday from Naughty Dogs' Dan Liegbol at the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco. Naughty Dogs has an history of Lisp usage. They were using GOAL in the past (their own Lisp variant) but they had dropped it after being acquired. You can read a bit about the story on Bill Clementson's blog: http://bc.tech.coop/blog/060118.html Apparently, they were missing GOAL too much :) Dan's presentation was on how they used Scheme to write a significant part of their latest game, called "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune". It's a very high profile and high quality game that is attracting lots of attention right now and that was very well received by critics. They have used they own implementation of Scheme to build the game. The Scheme code had multiple uses including: - Generate the C++ used to describe their data structures - Populate data tables at compile-time - Ensure validity of data (the code generating it could interact with their tools at compile-time) - Write their in-game scripts that would be compiled down to bytecode to be interpreted at run-time In addition to programmers, designers and artists were also using Scheme to create the game. Their presentation slides should be available soon and will provide a bit more details. Guillaume

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Invitation au Blitzweekend (French message)
by schemeway＠sympatico.ca 14 Feb '08

14 Feb '08

Je vous envoie une invitation de la part d'Heri Rakotomalala, de MontrealTechWatch.com. Bonjour, Le 1er et 2 Mars prochain a lieu blitzweekend, un événement sur 2 jours où on invite des développeurs, des designers, des entrepreneurs, toute personne intéressée à "hacker" et à concevoir des nouvelles technologies à former des équipes et à faire le design, le développement, et le déploiement d'une technologie, d'un produit, d'une technologie en 48 heures. Après les 2 jours, chaque équipe présente ce qu'ils ont fait, et ensuite chaque participant vote pour le projet le plus prometteur. C'est un format très similaires des "unconferences", et qui repose beaucoup sur la contribution qu'apporte chaque participant. On s'attend à avoir 75 personnes et plus, d'horizons diverses. On a déjà des équipes provenant de la communauté python, ruby et php, aussi des designers web, une équipe qui fait de la robotique, d'autres qui vont faire de l'électronique, et bien sûr aussi des personnes qui veulent lancer des nouvelles compagnies en technologies. On pense que c'est un beau défi et une chance pour Montréal, une chance pour vous d'entrer dans le jeu et de tester vos capacités. Blitzweekend est en lui-même un événement à but non lucratif. Par exemple, vous êtes libre de choisir comment vous vous organisez, sur quel projet vous allez travailler, si c'est un projet à but lucratif ou pas, etc. Pour nous, on fait ca pour la communauté à Montréal, et avoir au moins une fois à Montréal l'occasion de regrouper toutes les personnes intéressés par l'innovation en technologie. Pour ceux d'entre vous qui aspirent à l'entrepreneuriat, c'est aussi une occasion, puisque cela vous permettra de tester de nouvelles idées, sans forcément bloquer des mois. On pense que 2 jours suffisent largement pour savoir si votre idée est réalisable et a du potentiel. Je me rappelle que Dominique Boucher avait écrit un article sur MontrealTechWatch, qui disait que Montréal avait une des communautés les plus actives en Lisp/Scheme. Dans les mois passés, on a organisés de nombreux événements (democamps, barcamps ec.), et on n'a pas eu la chance d'avoir des membres de votre communauté. J'espère que pour cette fois-ci, vous allez répondre à l'invitation. Nous avons un site web http://blitzweekend.com et aussi une page pour s'enregistrer http://barcamp.org/Blitzweekend1Registrants Mon email est heri(a)madmedia.ca -- n'hésitez pas à m'envoyer un courriel si vous avez des questions.

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