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Hacking the NES With Lisp

Posted by Unknown on from the covert-alien-technology dept.

Andy Hefner has a detailed blog post covering his quest to program an NES with the assistance of Common Lisp. He developed a new 6502 assembler, a mini-language for composing musical sequences, and a neat demo (rom image).

6 of 80 comments (clear)

  1. a strange mix of nausea and admiration by decora · · Score: 5, Funny

    on the one hand, this guy has re-implemented assembler with lisp syntax.

    on the other hand, this guy has re-implemented assembler with lisp syntax.

    1. Re:a strange mix of nausea and admiration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      This reminds me of the old quote "Emacs is a wonderful operating system. All it's missing is a decent text editor."

    2. Re:a strange mix of nausea and admiration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      on the one hand, this guy has re-implemented assembler with lisp syntax.

      on the other hand, this guy has re-implemented assembler with lisp syntax.

      and on the gripping hand, it's the world's first assembler that requires you to start lines with seven parentheses and rewrites itself at runtime.

    3. Re:a strange mix of nausea and admiration by ratboy666 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Read the fine article. Using CL does substantially change the language. Specifically, note the higher order manipulation of the eventual low-level program that the author achieved using promises (delayed evaluations). Basically, "threading while assembling".

      Also, notice the ease of introducing higher-level flow control constructs (IF and UNTIL) into assembler. And the elimination of a second assembler pass by use of promises for forward references. It's kind of "magic" -- the correct data will be there when it's needed!

      In this use-case, CL is a notational system for NES programming. It probably shouldn't be called "assembler" anymore, as the power of CL can be brought to bear in the process of generating the desired machine code.

      --
      Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
  2. Re:Nostalgia is a powerful force... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Those NES boxes are quite comfortable with their sexuality, thank you very much, and just value their privacy. If they want to stay in the closet, who are we to disagree?

  3. This is what Slashdot needs more of by comrade+k · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Bravo, Slashdot. This is the kind of stuff that the geek crowd finds interesting. Is it useful? Nope. Is it cool and borderline bizarre? Yep!

    --
    "Every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace." -Robert H. Goddard