How powerful is a programming language in which you do not utilize mutation?
Apparently very powerful. So much, in fact, that it was used to build the first prototype of the Fortress programming language.
Prediction for 2008, a new functional programming motto will emerge:
“Purely functional data structures: Strong enough to build a fortress!”
There is a widespread belief among most Java programmers that while syntactic extension is indeed valuable, its introduction to Java would result in, among other things, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - in other words: mass hysteria. What I meant by “most programmers” is really just one Java programmer, Gilad Bracha.
Ostensibly Gilad […]
Ethan Herdrick is giving a presentation on Running a startup on Scheme next week. It sounds pretty interesting as he will be comparing PLT with Kawa Scheme, in addition to the fact that he is running a startup on Scheme.
The OLPC project’s vision is to “provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves.” To help further their goal, the OLPC folks gave us the opportunity to purchase one laptop for ourselves while at the same time purchasing one for a child. Over the past month I’ve read, talked, […]
Out of the box, the OLPC XO comes loaded to the gills with Python, but sadly, no Lisp!
To remedy that situation I enlisted the help of the kind folks on the PLT discussion list to help me write a script to build the PLT DrScheme (Lisp) development environment for the XO.
This script is responsible for […]
A week or so ago I ended up on “Luke’s Weblog” reading an article about Forth on the OLPC XO.
The OLCP Wiki has got Forth Lessons for everyone to enjoy. Forth is a pretty neat language!
You may have noticed that although access to the Forth shell is explained on this page, it doesn’t work. The […]
The path born of wonder is endless, paved with knowledge, and unconditional. Walking it will change you, and the world. Follow it every chance you get.
This page explains how to image your OLPC XO if you have hosed it up somehow.
I’ve followed the steps and it works like a charm.
If you instead only want to upgrade your system to a newer release, you should follow the steps here.
The only official way to get files in and out of the datastore is to drag and drop a single file at a time, and this only works on USB thumbdrives, not on the filesystem.
There is ticket for a workaround using a Python script; if you use an XO, please offer encouragement to get […]
The OLPC XO Wiki has a questions and answers page. Today I took look at the hardware page and found a few important bits:
JFFS2 compresses your data, performs wear leveling, and manages bad blocks so you don’t need to worry about the fact you are writing to flash.
USB “thumbdrives” should be formatted to FAT32.
Although the […]