[Fwd: Re: my web site (fwd)]

[Matt Jadud <mcj4@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I'm newly added to the list; please excuse the delay in getting back to 
you, Allan.

---------- Previous message ----------
From: Allan McInnes <amcinnes@xxxxxxxxxx>

I know that the Transterpreter group has developed a multi-platform 
occam VM which runs transputer byte code, but I'm not sure if it 
provides a REPL or not (I'd assume that the imperative nature of occam 
makes a REPL less attractive). Perhaps if someone associated with the 
Transterpreter is reading this they
could fill us in.
--------------------------------------

The Transterpreter is a cross-platform VM for executing compiled 
bytecode. We currently do not have anything resembling a REPL built into 
the VM simply because we do not, at this time, have a compiler capable 
of operating in this manner.

I certainly do appreciate the attractiveness of a REPL; I spend a great 
deal of my time developing in Scheme, and greatly value the 
interactivity a REPL affords. However, a REPL does present a number of 
thought problems for a CSP-based langauge. For example, any attempt to 
develop a REPL would require us to be able to execute incomplete process 
networks, so you could develop and execute individual processes one at a 
time. I can imagine ways the Transterpreter could support this kind of 
incremental development process, but it isn't terribly high on our 
development wishlist---largely because we'd have to build the compiler 
support, too. I mean, we could try and lean on Fred, or some other 
member of the community, to build it, but really---if we wanted it, we'd 
probably be expected to build that support into both the compiler and 
interpreter.

So. It's interesting to think about, but we don't have a compelling 
reason to put it on the roadmap, yet. We're open to discussion as to why 
we should consider it, though.

Related, in a way:

It may be of interest to this list that the Transterpreter has now gone 
open source, and an anonymous SVN now exists[1]. We aren't calling it 
"1.0" yet (everything we want in place for a "1.0 release" isn't 
complete), but decided it was time to open things up. We also have open 
discuss and announcement lists, and a newly created 'tvm-dev' list[4], 
for people who are interested in participating in the future development 
of the platform. Currently, the 'dev' list is the most active, as we 
have moved all of our internal, group development messaging to that 
list. All of these lists are linked in from [2].

[1] http://www.transterpreter.org/wiki/SVN_Download
[2] http://www.transterpreter.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists