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Radiant Computer

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Re: Radiant Computer

#111

Post by Flere-Imsaho »

cloudhead wrote: post #106
ilaksh wrote: post #39

Very interesting and ambitious project and nice design. I hope the author will be able to comment here. I'm interested to hear about the plans or capabilities in R' or Radiance for things like concurrent programming, asynchronous/scheduling, futures, and invisible or implied networking. AI is here and will be a big part of future personal computing. I wonder what type of open source accelerator for neural networks is…

Thanks for your comment! In terms of concurrent programming in Radiance, it's likely I go for something inspired by Go's simplicity and Haskell's power with STM[0]. Actors are also on the table, but likely as a library on top of the native system, whatever it is. The important thing is that everything that involves "waiting" be composable in this system: timers, network i/o, IPC, file i/o, etc. For the AI/OS intersec…

Please make a REPL front and centre of the system.

REPLs make computers feel like magic to me.

Re: Radiant Computer

#112

Post by glenstein »

iansteyn wrote: post #75
glenstein wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Doesn’t the feeling of “magic” directly proceed from abstraction and non-tractability Yes, but also I think it can also have a kind of liminal impression of an internal logic.

Would you mind elaborating?

I agree that the "magic" feeling involves abstraction from nuts and bolts, but a kind of notable responsiveness to, say, preferred trains of thought that are optimal for a workflow or project management or for rich functional interaction. I use the word "liminal" in the sense of the aesthetic term "liminal spaces" to indicate a presence of a kind of lightweight logic not necessarily fully articulated.

Re: Radiant Computer

#113

Post by Lerc »

cloudhead wrote: post #93
Lerc wrote: post #33

I'm interested in the idea of a clean slate hardware/software system. I think being constrained to support existing hardware or software reduces opportunities for innovation on the other. I don't see that in this project. This isn't defined by a clean slate. It is defined by properties that it does not want to be. Off the top of my head I can think of a bunch of hardware architectures that would require all-new softw…

Thanks for these thoughts -- I agree in principle, but we have to juggle a couple things here: while Radiant is in some ways an experiment, it isn't a research project. There are enough "obvious" things we can do better this time around, given everything we've learned as an industry, that I wouldn't want to leapfrog over this next milestone in personal computer evolution and end up building something a little too unf…

In that case I think the best advice I can give here is to focus less on features you dislike in other things and conaider the problems caused by those things. Without being encumbered by legacy reqirements you are free to make any changes you want, but each part is workload. Start at the top of each symptomatic feature and work your way down until you can change the part that causes the symptoms. Some things might require going down to the core. Some could be fixed with top level changes. Focus on finding what makes things bad(and why) instead of identifying bad things.

Re: Radiant Computer

#114

Post by PeaceTed »

efficax wrote: post #52

Like clockwork every year or so someone emerges and says "I'm going to fix computing" and then it never happens. We're as mired in the status quo in computing as we are in politics, and I don't see any way out of it, really. Also the website is very low contrast (brighten up that background gray a bit!)

Pretty much. I mean, best of luck to them. One has to try if anything is to change but I have seen this kind of thing so many times. Filled with enthusiasm but lacking in execution.

The whole 'Real artists ship' thing in action.

Re: Radiant Computer

#115

Post by PeaceTed »

mwcampbell wrote: post #2

The thing that always worries me about these clean-slate designs is the fear that they'll ignore accessibility for disabled people, e.g. blind people, and then either the system will remain inaccessible, or accessibility will have to be retrofitted later.

For all the complaints leveled at Apple, their accessibility on their OS's is astounding.

It is said if we live long enough, we all will be disabled at some point.

Re: Radiant Computer

#116

Post by SLWW »

This is intensely ambitious.

I just kind of want to see what comes out of this.

RISC-V ftw and if they got lightweight, local-first AIs with a decent site-map of each program; that could be really unique and fun; if not annoying to use in practice.

I see the future they want so badly.

Re: Radiant Computer

#117

Post by PeaceTed »

underdeserver wrote: post #10

I don't understand why they're particular about writing their own esoteric language. If they want people to buy and engage with it, software has to be the gateway, and that's easier to write in a language people know.

Yes but have you considered making a trapazoid wheel? Maybe it will work, or not...

Re: Radiant Computer

#118

Post by cloudhead »

Lerc wrote: post #113
cloudhead wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for these thoughts -- I agree in principle, but we have to juggle a couple things here: while Radiant is in some ways an experiment, it isn't a research project. There are enough "obvious" things we can do better this time around, given everything we've learned as an industry, that I wouldn't want to leapfrog over this next milestone in personal computer evolution and end up building something a little too unf…

In that case I think the best advice I can give here is to focus less on features you dislike in other things and conaider the problems caused by those things. Without being encumbered by legacy reqirements you are free to make any changes you want, but each part is workload. Start at the top of each symptomatic feature and work your way down until you can change the part that causes the symptoms. Some things might r…

That's a nice approach, thanks for the advice.

Re: Radiant Computer

#119

Post by cloudhead »

Flere-Imsaho wrote: post #111
cloudhead wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your comment! In terms of concurrent programming in Radiance, it's likely I go for something inspired by Go's simplicity and Haskell's power with STM[0]. Actors are also on the table, but likely as a library on top of the native system, whatever it is. The important thing is that everything that involves "waiting" be composable in this system: timers, network i/o, IPC, file i/o, etc. For the AI/OS intersec…

Please make a REPL front and centre of the system. REPLs make computers feel like magic to me.

I agree! I've been thinking about why terminal software is so compelling, and how to make that the default while keeping the system accessible to beginners. I think there's a way to do it, to unify GUI, TUI and CLI.
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