will_byrd

10 ms·

1. 31.▲
   by will_byrd 6y ago

   One thing I love about this wonderful story is that it shows you can use constraint logic programming to solve a problem (in a hilariously roundabout way), by using a tower of languages: Level 0: PROLOG Level 1: (non-relational implementati
2. 32.▲
   by will_byrd 6y ago

   Wait--it does run backwards!? I had thought that the non-logical features at the Prolog-implementation-of-Lisp level would lose relationality. And it does, at the level of the Lisp implementation. But you gain relationality at the micro
3. 33.▲
   by will_byrd 6y ago

   This is a work of high art. Now make everything run backwards! :)
4. 34.▲
   by will_byrd 7y ago

   Me too. We'll write one soon. Right now we are hacking on mediKanren to do drug re-purposing for COVID-19. I also work on miniKanren and am very interested in synthentic biology. We should talk! Please email me. --Will
5. 35.▲
   by will_byrd 10y ago

   I spoke at PolyConf two year ago, and really enjoyed it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQL48qYDwp4 There was only one problem--beer instead of milkshakes at the reception. ;)
6. 36.▲
   by will_byrd 10y ago

   Sorry for the slow reply. As I understand it, Solar-Lezama's approach is based on CEGIS (counter-example guided inductive synthesis), using a model checker or similar tool to generate counter examples from a specification. Barliman cu
7. 37.▲
   by will_byrd 10y ago

   > If you'd prefer to take this discussion to email we can. Sure. I'll take a crack at these followup questions first, though! > I think that my question was a bit too ambiguous. I think that I meant like an area where logic
8. 38.▲
   by will_byrd 10y ago

   I gave a short, semi-technical explanation of how Barliman performs synthesis in my answer to `YeGoblynQueenne`. I'm not sure if that description answers your question, though. I agree that relatively modest synthesis could be useful;
9. 39.▲
   by will_byrd 10y ago

   Barliman's synthesis is based on the "relational interpreter" approach described in this 2012 Scheme Workshop paper: William E. Byrd, Eric Holk, and Daniel P. Friedman. miniKanren, Live and Untagged: Quine Generation via Rela
10. 40.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    > c.) Is there a particular area of problems that would really benefit from being solved with logic programming? E.g. I was surprised to learn that Windows used to have an embedded prolog interpreter for network configuration and I reali
11. 41.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Thanks for the post, the pull requests, and the questions! I find that it's impossible to give enough context when answering high-level questions such as these, so some of my answers will probably seem more provocative or critical than
12. 42.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Very nice! Thanks. You might be interested in this paper and code on the implementation of microKanren, a minimal implementation of core miniKanren. The core implementation is under 50 lines of Scheme code. Jason Hemann and Daniel P. Frie
13. 43.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Yes, it's a prototype editor with interactive example-based synthesis. Barliman's synthesis can try to fill in "missing" sub-expressions in a Scheme definition. However, there is also a TDD component that might not be o
14. 44.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Cool! What was the other post?
15. 45.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Thanks for the great links! I really enjoyed the Statistical Relational Learning book. Rob Zinkov and I have worked on two prototypes of probKanren ( https://github.com/webyrd/probKanren ), a probabilistic version of min
16. 46.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Good question! I'm not sure how easy it would be to compile Barliman under GNUStep. I would like to have a version of Barliman that runs on different platforms, perhaps using JavaScript/Clojurescript/whatever. The GUI part o
17. 47.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Good questions! I'm fading, but hope to answer these questions, and the rest that have been posted, tomorrow. :)
18. 48.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Inductive Logic Programming is really interesting. I'd really like to explore similarities between ILP and the synthesis used in Barliman--I suspect Barliman's example-based synthesis could get a real boost from ILP. One book I h
19. 49.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Thanks for the question! I've heard of MPS but I don't know much about it. I need to watch the demos/screencasts! I'm very much interested in "tools for thought," which could include deduction assistants, but
20. 50.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    * Matt Matt -> Matt Might. Getting a little sleepy! ;)
21. 51.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Yes, using templates for common patterns could be helpful. Or even using machine learning over existing code bases to infer such templates. Similar to the use of templates is Matt Might's suggestion of using Barliman for code repair--
22. 52.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Yes, specifying behavior can be tricky. But I think there are ways to make it manageable. And, if you think type annotations, unit tests, property-based testing (as in Quickcheck), or contracts are useful, you are already specifying behav
23. 53.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Good point! I like the idea of using a wavy red line. Thanks! Yeah the user interface is pretty budget right now. :) I've been teaching myself Swift and Cocoa programming, and still have lots to learn. And I've been concentra
24. 54.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Hopefully my answer above makes this more clear. The high-level idea is that if you are going to take the trouble to specify the type of a function (as in Haskell), and tests that use the function (as in unit testing), and high-level proper
25. 55.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Good questions! > It's my impression, as a programmer, that the difficult task is defining ones program logic without ambiguity. Certainly the unambiguous specification of a program's behavior is a difficult task! Barliman&#x2
26. 56.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Thank you for posting the links! For anyone interested in how the relational interpreter powering Barliman works, here is a short talk I gave at PolyConf last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQL48qYDwp4 And here is a
27. 57.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Thanks! Yes, Barliman is ambitious. Both the synthesis capabilities and the interface will need to improve before Barliman might be useful for practicing programmers. One question Barliman is trying to explore is whether relatively modest
28. 58.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Good question! Since I imagine hangouts based on improving/exploring/experimenting with Barliman, or other similar tools, knowledge of interface design, GUI programming, parallel programming, EC2, etc., should be just as useful as
29. 59.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    Thanks for the comment! I agree! The newer interface includes an "Illegal sexpression" messages, but still uses the sickly green color. I need to fix this--any suggestions? :)
30. 60.▲
    by will_byrd 10y ago

    One more high-level comment. I'm thinking of starting a series of Google Hangouts to explain how Barliman works, and more importantly, to collaborate on making the underlying technology better and explore alternative interfaces. This