[plt-scheme] "Exotic" tools go mainsteam (from ACM Tech News)

Okay, it's Common LISP, not Scheme, but this may still be of interest

'Exotic' Programming Tools Go Mainstream
eWeek (02/06/06) Coffee, Peter
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.
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===
Gregory Woodhouse
gregory.woodhouse at sbcglobal.net

"The finger pointing at the moon is
not the moon."
--Buddhist saying



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