Keywords

• High-level languages
• Software quality
• Lisp, Scheme, Python

Motivation

We have nearly finished the first stage of creating a complely free operating system. We have several kernels, basic libraries, programming tools, and lots more.

The second stage, writing applications, is making fast progress. This stage differs in a crucial way from the first, in that we do not have any specifications for applications, whereas for system software we have ANSI/ISO C, Posix, etc. Writing applications will thus require more experimentation. Very high-level languages and development environments will therefore likely play an essential role for this development.

For developers of free software, productivity is essential, for the simple reason that many of these developers are not paid for their efforts. This is another good reason for using very high-level languages.

Finally, the use of such languages is necessary for the quality (correctness, robustness, maintainability) of the applications we develop.

The purpose of this topic is to realize a state of the art among the languages and systems for developing applications, by gathering developers of Lisp (Common Lisp, Emacs Lisp), Scheme (Guile, Kawa, etc), Python, and others.

Sub-topics

• Lisp (Common Lisp, Emacs Lisp)
• Scheme (Guile, Kawa, etc.)
• Python

Program

Wednesday, July 5th

Other days are devoted to design and programming.