Search found 447 matches
- Sat Jun 04, 2011 7:48 am
- Forum: Emacs Lisp
- Topic: Seeding PRNG
- Replies: 3
- Views: 11197
Re: Seeding PRNG
PRNGs typically use some sort of internal state to generate a sequence of "random" numbers. The seed is merely used to set that state. The question then turns to how you set the seed. If you need highly random numbers (like you're working on crypto algorithms), you're better of not using t...
- Sat Jun 04, 2011 7:36 am
- Forum: The Lounge
- Topic: Copy-on-Write Mapping of Memory - is it possible?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 9963
Re: Copy-on-Write Mapping of Memory - is it possible?
I understand it wasn't an SBCL question. I assumed that it was a Lisp question, though, right? My only point was that, in general, GC's fight with copy-on-write because they typically store things like mark bits close to the objects they identify, and thus they have a tendency to write something to ...
- Sat Jun 04, 2011 7:21 am
- Forum: Emacs Lisp
- Topic: Lisp Evaluation
- Replies: 4
- Views: 29375
Re: Lisp Evaluation
To give a bit longer answer, there is a notion in the Lisp family of languages of Lisp-1 vs. Lisp-2. In a Lisp-1 variant (e.g., Scheme), symbols have only a single value. If you see the symbol LIST, for instance, it's always bound to the same thing. This is true whether the symbol appears in the fir...
- Sat Jun 04, 2011 7:08 am
- Forum: Emacs Lisp
- Topic: File reading
- Replies: 2
- Views: 8893
Re: File reading
Yes. In Emacs Lisp, you pretty much need to ignore the idea of files. The procedure is to load files into buffers and then examine the contents of the buffer. When you are done, possibly having modified the buffer, then you write the buffer back to a file.
- Sat Jun 04, 2011 7:06 am
- Forum: The Lounge
- Topic: Average Lisp age?
- Replies: 36
- Views: 490394
Re: Average Lisp age?
Wow. I'm the old guy: 44.
- Sat Jun 04, 2011 7:04 am
- Forum: The Lounge
- Topic: Hey, what's up?
- Replies: 4
- Views: 10329
Re: Hey, what's up?
That's a good reading list. If you can get through all that and soak it all up, you'll be doing quite well.
- Sat Jun 04, 2011 7:02 am
- Forum: The Lounge
- Topic: Copy-on-Write Mapping of Memory - is it possible?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 9963
Re: Copy-on-Write Mapping of Memory - is it possible?
Linux has shared memory with copy on write (see the MAP_SHARED flag to mmap, I think). I'm not an expert on shared memory programming. That said, sharing the heap like this would likely be fruitless. Fork uses shared memory because C programs that fork are either spawning versions of themselves to h...
- Sat Jun 04, 2011 6:47 am
- Forum: The Lounge
- Topic: Content Management System
- Replies: 4
- Views: 11373
Re: Content Management System
You can always learn something more in Emacs.
- Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:52 pm
- Forum: The Lounge
- Topic: Totally Newfang!
- Replies: 8
- Views: 17932
Re: Totally Newfang!
Welcome! Yes, this site is newbie friendly.
- Wed Jan 26, 2011 3:47 pm
- Forum: The Lounge
- Topic: Hi everyone!
- Replies: 6
- Views: 15527
Re: Hi everyone!
Welcome! This is the place to be.