Author: Sune Fischer
Date: 05:50:16 02/17/04
Go up one level in this thread
>What I tried to say was that if I wanted to write an assembly language
>chess program, I would have written it in Lisp, making extensive use of
>Lisp macros. Essentially I would build a simple special-purpose low-level
>chess programming language with a Lispish syntax, and use macros to
>transform this to assembly language. Much easier and more comfortable
>than writing directly in assembly language, but with very little loss
>of performance.
So before you get started you must create a "special-purpose low-level
chess programming language with a Lispish syntax"? :)
I could be wrong, but inventing a language to solve a problem seems like a big
project in itself.
>For an iteresting example of this type of approach, look at the following
>article describing Naughty Dog Software's use of Lisp to create a language
>called GOAL ("Game Oriented Assembly Lisp"), which they use to develop
>video games for the Sony Playstation. This is of course different from
>chess programming, but it is still an example of programs with very high
>performance requirements:
>
>http://www.franz.com/success/customer_apps/animation_graphics/naughtydog.lhtml
In the end it's mostly up to the compiler to make it run fast or not.
If it is possible to be as 'explicit' in Lisp as in C, then I see nothing
preventing a Lisp compiler from being as good as a C compiler, other than
perhaps more money goes into developing C compilers.
On the other hand if Lisp allows the programmer to express himself in a more
'fuzzy' manner, as I would expect of a high-level language, then I think Lisp
will have a theoretical disadvantage.
>The point is that high-level languages are sometimes the perfect tools
>for writing low-level programs. :-)
I find that hard to believe.
I think there is a reason why people still use C and assembly today, and I doubt
it's because they are all ignorant to the powers of Lisp ;-)
-S.
>Tord
This page took 0 seconds to execute
Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.