Scheme Hackers of the World Unite and Take Over

I spend some time lurking on the PLT Scheme mailing list.

OK, let's rewind.

It all started, more or less, when I was tasked with writing a program that plots AutoCAD DWG files to PDF. It doesn't take more than 6 seconds with ACAD to understand the thing that puts it over the top is (Auto)Lisp.

Ok, hold on a second. Let's rewind.

It actually goes back to my exposure to emacs. It had already matured somewhat before I started using it, and, in the throes of writing a dissertation [PDF], I didn't go wild hacking elisp (The Mother of All Languages (it's true)). Had I just known what was at my fingertips... BUT, whereas (x)emacs was whip ass beyond my text hacking imagination, AutoCAD made me want to bust some gung fu on some punks for about 5 seconds, after which I discovered (Auto)Lisp. Extensibility is where it's at. You've got an app? Make goddamn sure it's hackable, and by hackable, I mean extensible. {U,Li}nix is just an app extensible in C. Man, that's great! You want an app that will bend people's minds? Make it extensible in Lisp.

If there is a rule in software, it's that no one knows what "the client" wants. If you try to write for "the client", it's going to suck, so you might as well write something you'd like to hack.

One of the many lessons emacs teaches is: if you thought of it, someone might have thought of it first. I knew what I wanted -- I wanted hack my stuff in Lisp or better -- but I was trapped in a C world. What to do?

Brent Benson to the rescue.

OK. It really didn't happen quite this way. There was stuff in between. But it's close enough. Mr Benson seems to have found greener pastures (anyone know?), but his libscheme [tar.gz] lives on in a great-great grandbaby of sorts named PLT Scheme.

Embedding mzscheme as an extension language in the translator has me lurking on the PLT list. Full circle. OK.

I've been hawking Paul Graham's Summer Founder's Program (schedule has slipped for your convenience -- get cracking!). Neil Van Dyke posted an "eleventh-hour Summer Founder mixer" announcement on the PLT mailing list. Without further ado, I repost it here, in its entirety:

IF you're a Scheme/Lisp hacker who is based in Boston, AND you are very interested in doing the Paul Graham, et al., Summer Founder program this year, BUT you need to find one or more partners before you can even think about applying, THEN...

A small group of us (3-6 or so people) should try to meet Wednesday or Thursday, in Cambridge, for the following purposes:

1. Get a sense of who's interested, their skills, personality, etc.


2. Naturally gravitate into interactional subgroups.


3. See whether, on average, Scheme or CL hackers are hairier.

If you're interested, please email me ASAP with:

1. Name, email address, (optional) home page URL.


2. When you are available to meet.


3. (optional) Venue suggestions, if you don't want to be stuck at a self-conscious cafe nor in a soulless room at MIT.

I plan to email more info to all the respondees on Wednesday afternoon.

Check Neil's site for the email address.

If there is one thing to take from this post: Scheme 48's module system rocks.