The Sol FAQ
Richard W. DeVaul
Vision and Modeling Group, MIT Media Laboratory.
Description
This is a short document intended to address common questions about
the Sol language project. You may also be interested in the presentation outline for my three-minute TTT
talk. More extensive information can be found in the other
documentation resources available through the Sol home page.
Who is doing this?
Sol is a project in the Vision and Modeling Group at the MIT
Media Laboratory.
What is Sol?
Sol is a new Internet programming language designed as an elegant
alternative to Java. Sol has a beautiful Scheme-derived
syntax and is an ideal choice for coding computational design work, simulation, or any other application in
which coding elegance and portability are an issue.
Much of Sol is currently implemented as an embedded language in R4RS
Scheme. However, Sol is moving towards an optimized Java
implementation based on the Kawa Scheme to JavaVM
compiler. For more information on Scheme, see the MIT Scheme home
page at http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/scheme-home.html.
When did the Sol project start?
The ideas for Sol have been rattling around in my head for a while,
but I started coding on the project as part of my Master's thesis work
around October or November of '97.
Where is the project now?
There is a working Linux and IRIX based compiler system built on top
of the Kawa Scheme to
JavaVM compiler, various GNU tools, and other open-source
software. The compiler produces Java class files, and can produce
both applications and applets.
I've been saying this for a while now, but within a week (6/13/99)
there should be an early-alpha distribution available for those who
are willing to experiment with a rough implementation.
Why should I be interested?
As a language Sol has some interesting possibilities. The set-based
typing and Scheme syntax seem to be good compliments. The (as-yet
unfulfilled) promise of true portability through the Java VM is
exciting. More importantly, the language is still developing, and the
best ideas may be yet to come.
Check out some of the work I've done with Sol, particularly the stuff
on the Sol
Emergent Design page and see what you think.
How can I get involved?
I plan on putting together an alpha release by the end of the week
(6/13/99). The code is in a very rough state and alpha-testers should
not expect an easy or painless install process; figuring out how to
package all of this will be one of the first problems to resolve. The
code will be released under an MIT open-source license which places
some restrictions on how the software can be distributed; this is not
my first choice (I'd like to GPL the whole thing) but is the best that
can be done at present. Contact me via email if you're interested in
working with the alpha release.
$Revision: 1.4 $ last updated $Date: 1999/06/08 18:53:52 $
rich@media.mit.edu