[gambit-list] Mikel Evins about the Lisp-based Newton OS.

Bradley Lucier lucier at math.purdue.edu
Wed Oct 1 22:16:01 EDT 2008


I saw this on Reddit programming; some interesting parts are

> As a matter of fact, my favorite programming language of all time  
> is not Common Lisp, but the S-expression-based Dylan (later Dylan  
> versions don't excite me). High on the list of things I would like  
> to see is a new implementation of something very close to that  
> language, with several things designed to bring it forward to  
> today, notably libraries supporting POSIX, multithreaded  
> programming, Internet protocols and data formats, and good XML  
> support. DUIM would be nice, too.

and

> Q: [How do you compare] Dylan vs. Guile (a Scheme).
>
> Mikel: Things the old Dylan had that I would miss in Guile:
>
>     * absolutely everything is an object in the sense of its object  
> system
>     * native code compiler
>     * iteration protocol (and the generally well-thought-out  
> collection classes)
>     * comparison protocol
>     * a single convenient form for binding single or multiple values
>     * singletons (yes, I know it's possible to implement them using  
> the MOP)
>     * functional features like curry, rcurry, compose, complement,  
> disjoin, and so on
>     * sealing
>     * the condition system
>     * the module system (I prefer it to that of Guile)
>     * grew fond of several Dylan conventions that differ from  
> Scheme (e.g. the use of "bind" in place of "let")
>
> On the other hand, Guile does provide some things I would misss if  
> I had to go back to the old Dylan, notably threads and SRFI  
> support. As I've said above, I'd also like to see a modern Dylan  
> support POSIX and XML and Internet standard protocols and data  
> formats.


http://lispm.dyndns.org/news?ID=NEWS-2004-08-14-1



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