We're on our way...

So, just in case you stumbled upon this blog and you're wondering WTF is this all about. It's about our own pet project: a new programming language called rhabarber (It seems that programming languages as a general rule have to have funny names. Ever heard of boo, or groovy?).

Anyway, rhabarber is intended to be a programming language which is highly configurable (a bit like lisp) but still has the look and feel of C. You're asking why? Well, it might be that the syntax-lessness of lisp is a big win, but for us that's only true unless you're doing a lot of arithmetics. It pains severly to write that stuff in lisp. And since we're working on machine learning, seamless integration of matrix algebra is a must.

Stefan and Mikio originally started the project as an alternative to matlab, which is both quite expensive and whose language is a bit too 1970s to be really fun to play with. The first prototype was presented at the Machine Learning Tools Satellite Workshop in Vancouver, December of 2005.

Since then, we've been cleaning up the language design and the internal structure and basically started a rewrite from scratch in the summer of 2007. Currently we're adding the last nice features and are close to releasing the first version. So stay tuned... .

Rhabarber Pie 2007

Stefan and Mikio finally managed to meet in person, meaning that Mikio voluntarily abandoned the nice summer weather in Berlin to fly to Edinburgh to enjoy, well, the nice summer weather in Edinburgh (but don't forget to adjust the temperature by -10°C). Maybe it would've been somewhat less stressful if KLM did not decide to "delay" Mikio's baggage in Amsterdam -for almost 48 hours.



Anyway, Stefan and Mikio set up their rhabarber coding pen in Stefan's living room and started coding away, basically rewriting the very inner core of rhabarber, implementing the new language design. On the left, you see Stefan on his Apple, on the right is Mikio's Laptop running a 64bit debian, resulting not only in 32bit vs. 64bit environments, but basically also Linux against BSD. Great for debugging, of course... .

Stay tuned for more information... .

Hello world!

Dear Reader,

sooner or later, something interesting will appear here.
Until then: ZEN.

Best regards,
Stefan.