David Clark wrote:
If you were introducing a radically new programming paradigm for AGI, I
would be more interested.... Not that I think this is necessary to
achieve AGI, but I would find it more intellectually stimulating ;-)
If you care to detail what kind of problem or structure you find hard to
deal with in C++ or other major languages, I would be interested either on
or off list.
Well, **anything** can be dealt with in C++, it's just a matter of how
awkward it is.
For instance, using Boost you can do lambda-calculus in C++ ... but it's
not the most elegant
way to do lambda-calculus
The biggest thing I miss in C++ are higher-order functions, as you find
in Haskell for example.
And, at the opposite end of the spectrum, I'm a big fan of Ruby's "duck
typing" , as well ...
But I can see that duck typing and higher-order types provide compiler
writers with a lot of
challenges, where efficiency is concerned...
I am hopeful that recent advances in programming language theory will
allow the creation of
efficient functional language interpreters in the next 5-10 years, see e.g.
http://www.dcc.fc.up.pt/~frs/
But I don't want to wait! Instead of creating a better language for
human use, we are coding
NM in C++ ... but internally, Novamente learns cognitive code expressed
in a different language,
which doesn't need to have a nice syntax (and is more like LISP or
Haskell than C++)
With your huge investment in C++ code, I would be leery of any suggestion of
language change as well. It is hard to evaluate the robustness and
scalability of a language from only documentation where the actual code
isn't available yet. I think once you actually get a copy, you might just
change your mind about the scalability and speed of this system but I know
all that probably won't be enough for you to switch. Just you having a
small interest in the outcome of this project as it goes forward would be
great for me.
Hey, when the language is ready, I'll try it out ;-)
ben
-----
This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email
To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to:
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?list_id=303
