<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Okay, it's Common LISP, not Scheme, but this may still be of interest<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12.7px;"><B>'Exotic' Programming Tools Go Mainstream</B></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12.7px;"><B>eWeek (02/06/06) Coffee, Peter</B></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12.7px;">New releases of such programming tools as LISP, PROLOG, and others have brought what were previously considered exotic applications out of obscurity and closer to mainstream Web-facing technologies. A recent test of Franz's Allegro Common LISP 8.0 far exceeded the performance speeds of previous versions, with its source editor, debugger, and other coding devices rivaling the most advanced Java applications. With its rigidly consistent syntax and incremental compilation, Allegro CL offers regular-expression parsing that is Perl-compatible, database interface drivers, and XML parsing. AllegroCache is the gem of version 8.0, however, offering freestanding and client/server transactional database applications. Developers are also harnessing the practical capabilities of neural nets, PROLOG, and genetic algorithms, the previous versions of which had been the untenable province of artificial intelligence hype. Aimed at creating extensible and adaptive frameworks, these applications are rapidly compiling imperfect solutions that are nevertheless of practical use in today's environment. Researchers are currently using PROLOG for speech-recognition applications, such as the implementation of its SICStus Prolog in the Clarissa speech-recognition program that helps facilitate communication among crew members of the International Space Station. The Regulus spoken-dialog processor, which includes SICStus Prolog, brings the swift application of statistics to speech recognition, says Manny Rayner of NASA's Ames Research Center. "You can develop a command grammar fairly quickly, without having to collect a huge amount of data," he said. Science Applications International's Larry Deschaine has used the technology to glean meaning from data sets, rather than the spoken word, running code on a Web page in milliseconds that would have taken weeks on a remote server.<BR></SPAN></FONT><A href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1917191,00.asp"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12.7px;"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#656895">Click Here to View Full Article</FONT></SPAN></FONT></A><FONT class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12.7px;"> </SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>===</DIV><DIV>Gregory Woodhouse</DIV><DIV><A href="mailto:gregory.woodhouse@sbcglobal.net">gregory.woodhouse@sbcglobal.net</A></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>"The finger pointing at the moon is</DIV><DIV>not the moon."</DIV><DIV>--Buddhist saying</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>