[Jan. 2001] My feelings about dealings with XSLT.  (With apologies to MontyPython)

	 :	Strange languages, lying about in XML, distributing tags, is no basis for a system of document conversion.  Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from Larry Wall, not from some farcical W3 consortium ceremony.  I mean, if I went round, saying I was Emperor of document conversion, just 'cause some moistened bint threw a recursively scoped syntactically self-embedded translation language at me, they'd put me away!

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[Dec. 2000] I'm learning Smalltalk, finally!  My primary languages at this point are, Forth, C, C++, Perl, and Java (in no particular order . . . well, that's the order I learned them actually :)  Here are some observations or thoughts I've had about Smalltalk so far:

	* The more languages you try before you get to Smalltalk, the more awesome it will seem.  :-)
		* [''ReplaceWithAnswer: tried RubyLanguage yet?'']
	* Smalltalk is like Forth for programmers.  Forth is like Smalltalk for hardware engineers. (See ForthInSmalltalk)
	* [Note to self] "You've been lied to: you've been told that static typing is mandatory, and a boon for any complex project; and then you've been given a host of languages so hideously perverted by their static typing that they ensure no other conclusion is reachable."  Yes. :)
And my most-recurring thought about Smalltalk so far:
	* Whoa, heh, this language is soooooo coool.

    
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Long ago, on a computer terminal while visiting my Dad at work...

	You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building.
	Around you is a forest.  A small stream flows out of the building and
	down a gully.

Somehow it's remained one of my favorites.  I still recall that Saturday afternoon, heat waves rising off the parking lot, and the transition through smoky glassed doors into the air conditioned office building.  A hardware R&D lab and more-like hangar, inside it had been partitioned with high walls stopping only half way to the double high ceiling; a dangling network of wires and fluorescent lighting occupied the spaces above.  Corridors and surfaces lay inhabited by electronic equipment or piled with bare circuitry.  And my Dad, clearing a few obstacles and seating me at a terminal, typed an inscrutable sequence of commands: then;

	Welcome to Adventure!

	Would you like instructions?
	?

My eight- or nine-year-old mind, making the leap into an alternate universe... I'm pretty sure a part of me's been there ever since.  :)

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I'm currently programming for Encyclopaedia Britannica working on our CD-ROM products; for about nine years preceding I did games programming; and various projects before that, to my first steps in programming in about 1982.

In my spare time I'm working on QwikWiki and recently hacked up a for-fun Forth compiler in Perl (http://members.cts.com/crash/b/billk/pforth/).

My current methodological leanings are more toward WorseIsBetter than the RightThing, although I think not-100% as correctness is still a closely held tenet for me - especially where incorrectness would lead to crashing or flaky software behavior.

I have a recurring obsession--and when it occurs it carries a feeling of some certainty--the feasibility of devising some form of a robust, general machine learning intelligence.

Update, Sep. 2000: I feel like I could be nearing an actual implementable concept for the AI.  It's weird to be getting closer to ''something'', something that is becoming sufficiently defined it would seem I could nearly implement it, and that it would even exceed my original expectations; and yet honestly have no idea whether it's even possible, let alone workable and emergent out of the particular configuration I'm converging on.  Torture.  Beautiful revelations. --- . . .or pipe dreams?

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Wiki pages I've initiated: AutoVivification, LatticeOfCoincidence, QwikWiki

Wiki pages I've enjoyed: ''many, many, many!  But to name a few offhand:'' DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork, YouArentGonnaNeedIt, RefactorMercilessly, BigOmega

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mailto:billk@cts.com

used to be: www.foosenblat.org (foosenblat wiki)

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