lab 58 - dried dung

"Even as the clock ticks, better and better computer support for the creative spirit is evolving." - Dan Ingalls.

How does computer support evolve and  interact with the creative spirit?

Doug Englebart tackled a related question, "How can a computer 
support a problem solver's intellect?"
Englebart's solution was a form of recursion called Bootstrapping. Build tools to help build better tools. The better tools would augment the programmers abilities to help them on their way to bootstrap the next system.  A significant aspect of the bootstrapping philosophy was that the researchers used the tools they build.

The Smalltalk researchers took those ideas to heart. 
The <a href="http://users.ipa.net/~dwighth/smalltalk/byte_aug81/design_principles_behind_smalltalk.html">Design Principles of Smalltalk</a> followed this evolution cycle explicitly:
    * Build an application program within the current system (make an observation)
    * Based on that experience, redesign the language (formulate a theory)
    * Build a new system based on the new design (make a prediction that can be tested)

Constructionist learning is based on the idea that you learn something best when you create or discover it yourself. Although a methodology for teaching kids, it also applies to programmers (problem solvers) in their daily activities. The Smalltalk researchers gained in two ways. They learned about systems building because they were creating a system. But once completed they had a better system to use to start the process of building the next system: the computer support evolved with them.

Alan Kay, one of the original members of the Smalltalk team went on to help create Squeak. A successor to smalltalk-80, it was built as a system for Kids to build and discover things, and for programmer's to use to bootstrap the next system.
He talks about the <a href="http://users.ipa.net/~dwighth/squeak/oopsla_squeak.html">Story of Squeak </a> and follows the bootstrapping philosophy, including using Smalltalk to implement the Squeak system. Alan Kay didn't see Squeak as an end  end in itself, Squeak is meant to be discarded, since it is just a stepping stone to the person's using it. If you build something you are changing it and on the way to making your own system.



To get back to answering my original question, the creative process *is* a bootstrapping process.  We learn by making things. And in the context of programming, there exists a kind of symbiosis between programmer and computer where the computer also learns new processes as we bootstrap new systems from old ones. The created system then becomes the context for the next system, and so it evolves, and with each evolution fills better the niche of the creative spirit it is serving.

The further illustrate these ideas and reinforce the point that the computer is "learning" too, I point you to a fantastic talk given by Ken Thompson to the ACM, <a href="http://www.acm.org/classics/sep95/">Reflections on Trusting Trust</a>. 


Inferno is several generations along the bootstrap timeline. It was bootstrapped from Plan 9, which was bootstrapped from research UNIX, which was bootstrapped from earlier, more primitive UNIX systems way back to UNIX implemented in assembly.

The question then that begs to be asked is, what's next? This is not just a question about the system but also about the person (or people) developing it.

My first steps along this path have been to start thinking about systems rather than individual tools. I've tried to create an Inferno collection of software that's more tightly aligned with the things I need. I want to reduce the overall size but keeping the same power, or increasing it. I've been trying to consider all trade-offs in complexity versus benefit.

I'm calling this effort Dried Dung (for whatever reason to remind me to think of systems). It's an attempt to bootstrap myself and the system to get better computer support for the creative spirit, hoping both will evolve as I keep pushing on the system.

I feel I could have chosen squeak, plan9, plan9ports, or a lisp environment as a starting point. But I've developed such a comfort level with Inferno I'd find it hard now to switch. I feel I've already begun to mould Inferno to my needs.

This lab's code is a pointer to the Dried Dung file tree. See <a href="http://canto.hopto.org/wiki/Getting_Started/index.html">Getting Started<a/> for obtaining a certificate to logon to the tree. Once you get the certificate <b>
mount tcp!canto.hopto.org!6681 /n/dung </b>
and browse the tree. <b>CHANGES</b> describes some of the modifications I've made but a lot of stuff has been described in this notebook, and will continue to be described here.