evanrmurphy

[1] Language being another item that governments tend to regulate.

That's how HN is if you're under the karma threshold.

Yes, thanks for the XMonad intro, I really can't wait to try it.

P.S. I think we have some friends in common and may cross paths at the l2l. :)

[1] As johnswamps points out in the neighboring comment, to get vim features (not just vi) you may need vimpulse as well.

XMonad looks great, I look forward to trying this out.

This is just off the top of my head, I've surely omitted much. If you want to know more:

Arc Forum - http://arclanguage.org/forum

Tutorial - http://ycombinator.com/arc/tut.txt

Install guide - http://arclanguage.org/install

Unofficial documentation - http://files.arcfn.com/foundation-doc.html

I think one of the design goals for Arc was to make a Lisp that's maximally attractive for prototyping. Of course, whether or not it has succeeded in achieving this goal is controversial.

  =============arc (2008)=============
  version used        Arc 3.1
  version             
  repl                mzscheme -f as.scm
                      arc.sh
                      M-x run-arc
  shebang
  cell types          
  case sensitive      yes
  argument            whitespace
    separator
  falsehoods          nil ()
  true, is true       t, yes
    symbol?
  nil, is () null?,   nil
    is () symbol?
  type-of             type
  type predicates     (is (type x) 'int)
                      (is (type x) 'sym)
                      etc.
  set property        none
  get property        none
  remove              none
    property
  comment             (+ 1 1) ; adding
  ============ten primitives==========
  atom (or list?)     atom
  quote               quote
  eq                  is
  car                 car
  cdr                 cdr
  cons                cons
  cond                (if (> x 0)  1
                          (is x 0) 0
                                  -1)  
  lambda              (fn (x) (* x x))
                      [* _ _]
  label               =
  apply               ((fn (x) (* x x) 2)
                      ([* _ _] 2)
  =============arithmetic=============
  ==============strings===============
  ==========execution control=========
  =========functions and scope========
  ==============lists=================
  list literal        '(1 2 3)
  pair literal        '(1 2)
  (car '())           nil
  (cdr '())           nil
  (eval '())          nil
  list functions      list alist len append rev
  nth                 ('(0 1 2 3) 3)
  last butlast        (last l)
                      (firstn (- (length l) 1) l)
  sort                (sort < '(3 2 1 0))
  assoc               (assoc 3 '((1 2) (3 4)))
  getf                none
  map                 (map [* _ _] '(1 2 3))
  filter              (keep [* _ _] '(1 2 3))
  reduce              (reduce + '(1 2 3))
  push and pop        (= x '(1 2 3))
                      (push 4 x)
                      (pop x) 
  ============sequences===============
  predicate           alist
  ===========other containers=========
  =========i/o and environment========
  format string       (pr "Spain" 7 ": " 13.7)
    to stdout
  external            (system "ls /etc")
    command
  open file           (= in (infile "/etc/passwd"))
  read line           (readline in)
  close file          (close in)
  =======libraries and namespaces=====
  loading a file      (load "a.arc")
  ============compilation=============
  ==============macros================
  backquote and       (def op +)
    comma             (eval `(,op 1 1))

  defmacro            (mac rpn (arg1 arg2 op)
                        (list op arg1 arg2))

  defmacro w/         (mac rpn (arg1 arg2 op)
    backquote           `(,op arg1 arg2))

  recursive           (macex '(rpn 1 2 +))
    macroexpand
  single              (macex1 '(rpn 1 2 +))
    macroexpand
  splice quote        (mac add (args)
                        `(+ ,@args))
  hygenic?            no
  local values        using gensym
  ==============classes===============
  =============concurrency============
  create thread       (thread)
  ==========java interoperation=======
  version used        jarc
    on jvm

This is an increasingly murky notion to me re: the web.

At any other time in history [1] sitting alone in your room reading something would have been a solitary task without question. There was a social component insofar as you were interacting with an author, but since that's one-way communication (read-only medium) it was still clearly distinct from social activities.

Fast forward to now when the thing your reading and writing is near-instantaneous updates to/from other reader-writers like you and this phenomenon is looking sufficiently different from traditional at-home reading as to defy most meaningful distinctions between introverted and extroverted activity. "But that's only text, you're not talking to people and seeing them like in real life." C'mon, I'm in an ambient Skype call with my girlfriend right now. We leave the thing on for hours at a time - yes, it's a way to cope with long-distance but also interesting because of how similar it really is to hanging out in the same room. "But you still can't feel or taste each other." No rebuttal... (and I'm still waiting on that Linux driver for my smell-o-vision).

[1] Although it's so easy to think that your moment in history is unique. There are at least definite parallels between what's happening now with the web and past revolutions in publishing and communications, including the printing press, telephone, radio and television.

  ooEEuuuuuuu killer tofuuuuuu

Ideas about legitimate work tend to be so bound up with professionalism. Why do I have to be dressed to be getting something done? Can't I make breakthroughs while lying on the floor or standing outside eating an apple? I'm excited about the potential of telecommuting to undermine all these superficial symptoms of work that have become so ingrained in us over time, perhaps at the expense of genuine attention to results.

Neat idea.

Imagine an auctioneer in real life implements this policy. "Going once for x. Going twice...." They begin mouthing the word "sold" when a competing bidder jumps in at x+1. The auctioneer proceeds as though nothing happened ("Sold!") except that the sniper wins ("For x+1...").

Abstraction to the point of losing all access to lower-level details is restrictive, but having processes that handle them for you automatically is very useful. Isn't it great that compilers do a good enough job most of the time that we don't have to write binaries for each architecture by hand?

No doubt the case is strong case for better performance improving overall perception of the software by the user. My question though is, is there really nothing to be said for slowness anywhere? Nothing for the occasional well-placed delay? Nothing for dramatic pause? Were all those accumulated hours of my childhood waiting at loading screens on the PlayStation 1 really for nought?

How about people attending less prestigious schools?

Now, having personal contact and a network throws all of this out the window.

Exactly, and this is part of what makes open source exciting. Want an internship at Google? Becoming a key contributor to Chromium OS is arguably a better strategy than going back to school, because if you're good you can get a Google employee to notice you.

It's just an immature paradigm still. Obviously the web has proven itself to be an outstanding medium for peer-to-peer socialization, and it's only a matter of time before online education taps into this.