- First name: Brian - Last name: Rice - Home page: http://tunes.org/~water/ - Email address: REMOVED - Phone number(s): (206) 325-5520 - Postal code: 98112 - City: Seattle - State or province: WA - Country: USA - Organization(s) you work for or study at (please supply the name and city for each organization): Microsoft (on contract) in Redmond, WA LOGOS R&D (my own private consulting, not sustainable yet) in Seattle, WA - Fields of interest (e.g. computer linguistics, numerical analysis, business software, medicine, bioinformatics): Business software, information management, network security, interactive dynamic media, smart operating environments, next-generation development / information environments, and all of the previous within the context of games. - Have you written any Lisp-related papers? If so, please supply bibliographical references (and URL's, if possible). Just one on the Slate language that I am developing, see http://slate.tunes.org/ which I presented on at ILC 2002; I also assisted in the development of my co-creator's thesis based on the language semantics. Pretty much the whole TUNES site, which I have written a large section of, is relevant (regardless of others' opinions). See http://tunes.org/ for that. - Have you developed or participated in the development of any Lisp-related programs or libraries? If so, please supply a URL, if possible. Minor assistance in several projects: CLiki/Araneida, cl-menusystem, McCLIM, bug reporting and fixing on numerous other Free Lisp lib raries. I have written a large app in Common Lisp for network security analysis, but cannot release it. It will likely be superseded when I have time or funding. The Slate language was bootstrapped from an interactive semi-compiler in Common Lisp. I wrote a toy Lisp object-based (prototypes) environment with a graphical "mousing" architecture in 1995 in university for a computer science project. It was simple and has been lost. - Lisp variants you have used (e.g. Common Lisp, Scheme, Dylan): Common Lisp, Scheme (only via Bigloo), Goo, Dylan, AutoLisp from years ago, Emacs Lisp, ZetaLisp on some old but expensive hardware I have lying about *cough*. - Lisp variants you're currently using or intend to use in the near future: Common Lisp, Genera - Lisp implementations you have used (e.g. CMUCL, Lispworks, Allegro Common Lisp): CMUCL, SBCL, OpenMCL, Genera, clisp - Lisp implementations you're currently using or intend to use in the near future: CMUCL, SBCL, OpenMCL, clisp - Computer platforms on which you're using or deploying Lisp: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows XP/Server2K3, Genera - Number of years of experience with Lisp: 10 years at intermittent levels, since I first learned it. 2-3 years of relatively constant use where it was my main language. - Experience with other programming languages (please supply the number of years and the name of the language): Smalltalk: 7 years C: 5 years Perl: 2 years Maude: 3 years Hundreds of other languages tried and evaluated (see http://cliki.tunes.org/Programming%20Languages). 4 languages invented, one actually released (Slate). - Total number of years of programming experience: Since age 6, which means 20 consecutive years of exposure. I'm not sure where in that time-frame to cut between hobby and professional development - it's at least 9 years. - Do you use Lisp: - at work (if so, how much) At Microsoft, I sneak in meta-level code generation. Think "wizards" and templates and build systems. - for study (if so, how much) N/A, unless you count early Slate language experimentation. - as a hobby (if so, how much) My consulting business. - Are you using Lisp as much as you would like to? No If not, why not? My personal business needs a shot in the arm; the fact that I have to start my own business to work on anything interesting is telling. Not enough clients are convinced that unfamiliar but much more advanced technologies are what they need, or that I have the requisite experience for their tastes. I also don't have enough of my own funding to bankroll real product development to a level where I can compete effectively. I should also remark that most Common Lisp implementations are not feasible for a large range of application domains, and that the range has real gaps and that the implementations do not coordinate to cover areas reasonably. - Do you see any obstacles to further Lisp growth (if so, what is the biggest obstacle in your opinion)? There are obviously obstacles. Lack of coherence on library stack strategies is a big problem; not that multiple implementations hurt, but a lack of high-level shared API's all the way up the scale is a big deal. Community focus on history and lack of focus on the future has not helped. Also, technically, Lisp needs an environment where I can do in it what can be done in Smalltalk, and this takes a lot of effort, and I shouldn't have to pay several thousand dollars for it. - Would you be interested in a Lisp-related job or contract work? Absolutely. Or a language with similar benefits. - Is your organization interested in hiring Lisp programmers? Microsoft? Well, they hire smart people, including Lisp programmers (they hired me because I can refactor programs like no one's business, and know the concrete benefits and mechanisms of interactivity and generative programming, of which most programmers are largely ignorant). Whether they'd hire someone to work in Lisp is, I believe, a microscopic possibility. As for me, I'll hire anyone I can afford, with Lisp programmers easily topping that list, but as of now that's no one. Partners or investors are definitely welcome. I have many plans and ambitions, and not enough means yet to fulfill them yet. - Are you currently participating in Lisp-related meetings? Yes (I organize them). See http://alu.cliki.net/lispsea If so, where and how often? Seattle, every few months (Should be more often). If not, would you be interested in such meetings? Naturally. - Do you know any other Lispers who might be willing to fill in this questionnaire (please supply their names and email-addresses if you do)? I've written an email to the user's group list. I'm not providing their information. - Do you know people who may be interested in learning Lisp (please supply their names and email-addresses if you do)? Yes. I'm not providing their information.