On Mon, 25 Oct 2004, Dave Griffiths wrote:
<large snip>
> OTOH, another advantage to the virtual machine approach is the ability to view
> the contents of memory and registers as the code is running, this is as
> important to understanding the process as view the code IMHO, and in a very
> small (virtual) processor, quite simple to display and understand.
>
> this is why I like the idea of editing code "inside" the machine a line at a
> time as it's running, rather than updating the code in chunks that get
> uploaded to replace a running process. doing in-processor livecoding has a lot
> of disadvantages, being much more error prone and there are a lot of higher
> level things you couldn't do easily with a small instruction set at a slow
> speed, but it certainly makes the process somewhat more direct.
>
> another idea is to look at universal machines that could be programmed
> visually so that the description, process and the execution are the same -
> conway's "life" springs to mind - you could have pixels that trigger sounds,
> and build glider guns to fire patterns at them.... you can build the basic
> logic gates out of glider guns and glider "eaters" I believe.
>
Yes, you can build all logic gates with glider guns, gliders and some
special configurations that react to them. I've seen at least calculations
of how large a Life simulation of (some generation of) the Pentium
processor would be.
> there is also Toshio Iwai's music insects, which could be seen as live
> programming, now I come to think of it:
> http://ns05.iamas.ac.jp/~iwai/artworks/music_insects.html
>
> enough monday morning "just got into work" rambling... :)
>
> dave
>
--
Mikael Johansson To see the world in a grain of sand
mikael_at_johanssons.org And heaven in a wild flower
http://www.mikael.johanssons.org To hold infinity in the palm of your hand
http://blog.mikael.johanssons.org And eternity for an hour
Received on Mon Oct 25 2004 - 09:44:28 BST