Re: what is the best language for go: Re: [computer-go] Scoreestimating

[Peter Seibel <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Don Dailey <drd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Python has Psyco which sounds really cool to me. It's a lot like a
> just in time compiler and I wish this existed for Ruby. It's the
> only reason I could consider swithing to Python. It requires no
> changes to your source code.
>
> At some point you begin to wonder if it's worth it. The main reason
> to turn away from C is to avoid complexities like this. When you
> program like this, mixing languages, you are moving in the wrong
> direction, making your code complicated again.

Another possibility is to use a languge provides high-level
abstraction (at and beyond the level of Python and Ruby) with
compilation to machine code and the *option* of providing declarations
that the compiler can use to generate even more efficient code. The
language: Common Lisp. Folks whose experience with Lisp occured either
10-20 years ago and/or in a single college computer science course
(which probably taught Scheme) tend to have a highly distorted view of
what Lisp is all about. If you're happy with your language choice,
great. But folks looking for a better way might want to give Common
Lisp a look.

Truth in advertising: I'm currently at work on a book about Common
Lisp which will be published by Apress later this year. Early drafts
of the many of the chapters are available at:

  <http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/>

for folks who want to check out Common Lisp. It is targeted at folks
who are already competent programmers in some other language and want
to know how to actually *do* stuff with Lisp.


-Peter

P.S. ObGo (and language comparison): my interest in computer go is in
the area of using genetic programming to develop go playing software.
Many years ago I wrote a genetic programming system in Java for
playing go whose great claim to fame was that it got to the point
where it could consistently (100% of the time) beat a random player on
a 5x5 board. Okay so that's not much. I've since been busy working,
etc. and haven't had a chance to work on it. But once I finish my book
I'm planning to get back to it reimplementing the whole system in
Common Lisp. I have notebooks full of ideas about how to improve it.
Re, language comparison. I have done a bit of work on the Common Lisp
version and despite at the time being fairly new to Common Lisp I was
much more productive working in Common Lisp than Java and I've been
programming Java professionally since 1997. For whatever that's worth.

-- 
Peter Seibel                                      peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

         Lisp is the red pill. -- John Fraser, comp.lang.lisp
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