Re: ::scr cross over media

[Rob Chatley <rob@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 7 Sep 2002, Simon Wistow wrote:

> He recounted a story of a grad student of his who was working
> on CA (or DFA - Discrete Finite Automata) and getting them to combine
> and 'learn' how to swim.

This is probably quite similar to the genetic algorithms and emerging
behaviour stuff. I remember seeing a robot a couple of years ago that had
six or eight legs and had learned (i.e. not been specifically
programmed) to walk. I think it was some people at Surrey university.

> The other interesting thing was his discussion of mutating Perl so that
> you program it in Latin. And Klingon.
> interesting was the way that language constructs change the style of
> programming. 

With object-oriented programming we've supposedly been trying to make the
"things" we use in programs more closely aligned to the problem domain. If
we could change the "dialect" of the language that we programmed in as
befit the problem in hand, would that make it easier to write the 
program? Or easier to read it afterwards? Perhaps yes and perhaps no. If
we decided to write the program in Latin then this might limit the set of
people who could read and maintain the program. However, in other cases,
especially with all the software going into embedded devices, application
specific languages might be just the job, as you can specify a language
that is just as powerful as you need, and no more so, which has got to be
a good thing resourcewise (both physical and mental).

Flexible customisable languages could be pretty cool I reckon. Does this
stuff with Perl 6 actually work?

>interview with Henry Jenkins - the director of comparative media at 
>MIT. He's currently working on using games (proper games, not 'Barney
>teaches you to Spell') as an educational tool.  

Well they always made us do games at school didn't they (small boys,
jumpers for goalposts...). Wasn't that all about learning to work in a
team. I guess you could do the same with a multiplayer action game, but
without the whole physical fitness aspect. "Hurry up lads, I hope you've
got the right kit, we're going to blow up some aliens...".

Rob