Re: Project Proposal : Simulators for the MAYBE and the G-Machine

[guy keren]

On Fri, 3 Aug 2001, mulix wrote:

> > I have a proposal for the next project the Haifux' programming club may
> > wish to take after r2l and I'd like to present it here.
>
> i seem to recall guy having a pretty neat project proposal. guy, care to
> post it and explain what it's about?

i'll write something up after the coming meeting on monday. i want to
first get some version of r2l packed out the door, before moving to
another thing. just in general, the idea was to write a set of utilities
that allow you to detach a process from the current terminal, and later
on, attach it to another terminal. this'll be a very simple version of
screen, but unlike screen, won't require you to prepare in advance for
detaching.

> > The internals and behaviours of the MAYBE and the G-Machine are described
> > in the book, which is still in print and available in "Sifriyath Hadikan".
> >
> > My question is: do you think it will be a valuable project to write these
> > simulators so they would be able to run on Linux, but would also have a
> > back-end that is portable enough to run on any other 32-bit and 64-bit
> > system? This project has the advantage that those who take it will become
> > familiarwith the internals of a full-fledged computer, which would be a
> > good experience in digital electronics.
>
> i'm not sure how worthy a project it would be, if you consider the
> following points:
>
> * how much hack value does this project have? or to putit another way,
> how much fun will we have doing it?
>
> * will it be usefull to anyone, excepts students taking this class?
>
> since i haven't read the book (though i probably will, based on your
> recommendation), i have no idea what is the scope of the work required,
> which is another issue to consider.

and in this case, it seems like a too large project. look how long it took
(takes?) us to work on r2l - it's been about 2 month already. how long
will we work on the project you're suggesting? a year or 2? :) i don't
think _i_ am willing to commit to something of this size right now. and i
don't think there are enough of us to make writing such a project faster,
so far. perhaps if we'll have 20 active programmers, it'll be feasible.

lets stick to small things for now - we saw that it works, more or less.

--
guy

"For world domination - press 1,
 or dial 0, and please hold, for the creator." -- nob o. dy