Below the surface of the machine, the program moves. Without effort, it expands and contracts. In great harmony, electrons scatter and regroup. The forms on the monitor are but ripples on the water. The essence stays invisibly below. When the creators built the machine, they put in the processor and…
Metadata
A general term referring to information that is about something but not directly part of it. (Ars Technica - The BeOS file system)…
Protocol
A protocol, that is, the composition and ordering of the exchanged messages. (M. Stamp)…
What is a Parser?
What is a parser? Really, a parser is just a function that consumes less-structured input and produces more-structured output. By its very nature, a parser is a partial function—some values in the domain do not correspond to any value in the range—so all parsers must have some notion…
Interview to Hal Abelson
CoRecursive recently interviewed Hal Abelson. The recording is available here.…