Scheme!

I had a chance to use Scheme again, and it was great, going back to the old memories. I was at first rusty -- I didn't remember some ways of formulating an expression -- but I quickly got into it, and I would like to use it more.

And every time I add a closing parenthesis after another closing parenthesis, I get a thrill in my bones. The parentheses are weird -- maybe for veteran Schemers and Lispers, they are easily ignored and seen as simply a part of the program; and maybe for them, it is useful as a way to see the block each parenthesis encapsulate, so you can see whether you're missing a closing parenthesis that would confuse the interpreter.

All in all, I love it. I love the functional paradigm -- it seems so logical to me, so mathematical, and so resistant against side effects.

A Scheme's Paean

It is curious how this programming language can inspire such passion and such metaphors.

I have dabbled in it and wanted to learn more, but I often don't know how to start, where to go, and am uncertain of my ability to go it alone.

OpenOffice.org

If you are using OpenOffice.org 2.4 (or any earlier version) for X11 on Mac OS X, Leopard version, you might be getting a curious Command Time Out Error. The page offers a script fix that seems to fix the problem.

This issue apparently arose Apple changed the way X11 interact with the applications.

Arc is out. I guess I could try it out when I have the time. It just seems a dialect of a language that keeps branching out. It may be a sign of vitality, but it is ultimately confusing because each Lisp is an island.

Things I read today

From 2006:
When the boughs break
And oranges
Juggling Oranges

Which restriction enzyme to use?

Nate sent the following link to me: EnzymeX Uses Cocoa on Mac OS X, using Cocoa to make a software that can help molecular biologists figure out which restriction site to cut, and therefore the appropriate restriction enzyme to use.

It sounds cool, especially the part where Cocoa, using Objective C, is supposed to save so much time programming so you can focus on other works. Perhaps programmers don't like it, but scientists and people of other disciplines will find it useful.

From what I see, as a practical non-programmer but sufficiently computer-savvy, Python, the open-source programming language, appears to be functionally similar to Objective C, but perhaps does not have the same code base that would permit the creation of fluid animation and beauty that Cocoa has.

As I was saying to a friend, this whets my appetite to know more, and has given me a positive view of future careers.