Roar. Growl.
I feel torn. I'd prefer to be writing everything in Lisp or
Scheme, but I feel the need to do things in Java, Python,
Objective-C, and the like. Why? Modern support, peer
pressure, availability of free development toolkits on
multiple platforms, API support, etc, etc. Some days, I
just can't bring myself to look at anything that does
variable assignment.
Recently got a Mac OS X box up and running using the stock
CD copy of Public Beta. Not bad. The Aqua look
and feel was novel for about an hour before it started
hurting my eyes and distracting from the the general "use"
experience. I like that I can forget about the UI in Mac OS
9 and just do work. Honestly, as nice as it is in some ways
to be back in
a NeXTSTEP/OpenStep-ish environment with Mach and Objective-
C (I was a big NeXTSTEP/OpenStep fan and developer), there
are lots of things I could do either without or with a lot
of improvement in Mac OS X. But overall, I think it's a
win, so long as they include more optional functionality
(like a native Mac OS 9 UI option [I can't shade windows in
Mac OS X -- it minimizes them in an agonizingly slow
fashion to that horror that is the Dock]) in the upcoming
public release. Oh, and it needs to be a lot faster. I have
it on a G4 with 192 MB of RAM and it redraws real slow. I
wonder if they're using Altivec functionality in the Public
Beta. I think not. They better in the release version. More
native apps would be nice too, but that'll come with time.
Intertwingle plods along. I have a bare-bones API (if you
can call it an API) in Scheme that I'm busy turning into
working CL code. I'm still debating doing it in Java too,
if only because of rich class library support and public
attention.
Need to find some time to get my head around turning E into
JVM bytecode for the first E compiler (which I'm dubbing
Eco).
My end of Vapour has
stagnated, I need to get back on top of that too. And CLAS. And R6RS. And I
want to help out/pick up some new projects too, especially
something on SourceXchange. And
I want to get my personal domains set up and running. All
of this, plus work, love, and the rest of life. Something
tells me that I either need to moderate my expectations or
get real good at time management. Probably both.