You are probably not old enough to remember 'core' memory. It used to be the case that you could turn off a computer and then, when you turned it on again, the memory image was exactly remembered (in "magnetic core") and your program would continue running exactly as though nothing happened. Of course, a BIG memory machine had 8,192 bytes.
NVRAM (non-volitile RAM) is coming, in near terabyte sizes. Unlike DRAM (dynamic RAM) it remembers everything even though it has no power. That changes everything we know about computing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBXbump35dg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8nMsabFD2w For example, data structures no longer needs a "disk representation" since they never leave memory. On the other hand, neither does a mangled data structure or a memory leak. Lisp is well suited for this environment. Lisp with a form of persistent data structures (Okasaki) would be even more interesting. This has interesting implications for the new "Sane" Axiom compiler / interpreter. For example, an "input" file actually resides in interpreter memory at all times. If nothing else, these videos are an interesting glimpse of near-future computing issues. Tim _______________________________________________ Axiom-developer mailing list Axiom-developer@nongnu.org https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/axiom-developer