Portable Efficient Assembly Code-generation in High-level Python





Tracking the Flow of Ideas through the Programming Languages Literature





Cakes, Custard, and Category Theory





Don Syme receives a medal for F#




Conservation laws for free!




Seemingly impossible programs


Programming language semantics is typically applied to
prove compiler correctness and allow (manual or automatic) program
verification. Certain kinds of semantics can also be applied to
discover programs that one wouldn't have otherwise thought of. This is
the case, in particular, for semantics that incorporate topological
compact) do have decidable equality, contradicting perhaps popular

and introduce the theory behind their derivation and working. In
optimally plays sequential games of unbounded length, (ii) implements
the Tychonoff Theorem from topology (and builds finite-time search
from proof theory (and allows us to extract programs from classical
examples in the languages Haskell and Agda.





Scratch jr

Scratch jr is an iPad version of the Scratch environment, designed with young kids in mind. It is the best kid-oriented programming tool I tried so far, and my five year old has great fun making "movies" with it. As I noted on twitter an hour after installing, the ability to record your own voice and use it for your sprites is a killer feature. Check it out!

Functional Geometry and the Traite Ì de Lutherie

Functional Geometry and the Traite Ì de Lutherie by Harry Mairson, Brandeis University.

We describe a functional programming approach to the design of outlines of eighteenth-century string instruments. The approach is based on the research described in Francois Denisâ€™s book, Traite Ì de lutherie. The programming vernacular for Denisâ€™s instructions, which we call functional geometry, is meant to reiterate the historically justified language and techniques of this musical instrument design. The programming metaphor is entirely Euclidean, involving straightedge and compass constructions, with few (if any) numbers, and no Cartesian equations or grid. As such, it is also an interesting approach to teaching programming and mathematics without numerical calculation or equational reasoning.

The advantage of this language-based, functional approach to lutherie is founded in the abstract characterization of common patterns in instrument design. These patterns include not only the abstraction of common straightedge and compass constructions, but of higher-order conceptualization of the instrument design process. We also discuss the role of arithmetic, geometric, harmonic, and subharmonic proportions, and the use of their rational approximants.

Study finds that when no financial interests are involved programmers choose DECENT languages

For immediate release. By studying the troves of open source software on the github service, a recent (and still unpublished) study by a team of empirical computer scientists found that programmers prefer to use DECENT languages. DECENT languages were defined by the team to be languages that conform to a set of minimal ethical standards, including clean syntax, expressive type systems, good package managers and installers, free implementations, no connection to the military-industrial complex and not harming animals. The researchers argue that their data support the view that the prevalent use of indecent languages, Java in particular, is the result of money influencing programmer decisions. The principal author of the study notes that DECENT languages do not necessarily make the most MORAL choices (e.g., many of them are not statically typed). He attributed this to a phenomenon called the "weakness of the will."

Details to follow.

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