From: Dimiter "malkia" Stanev
Subject: Re: Program "close to the machine"
Date: 
Message-ID: <6fruq1Fcp0g9U1@mid.individual.net>
Well, there was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Oriented_Assembly_Lisp

But since Sony acquired Naughty Dog, it made them move to C++ so other 
studios can reuse their tech. As far as I know the idea of using Lisp 
there was so that they can have the kit (ps2 kit) running for a week 
with the same image, and they would be able to modify it on the fly. 
Also according to some sources they were even able to program the IOP 
(The PS1 chip included with PS2 for backward compability, otherwise used 
for I/O, sound, etc.) with it (but I can't be sure of it).

Also Crack Dot Com's ABUSE 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abuse_(computer_game) uses some kind of 
Lisp (not Common Lisp or Scheme I think)

I believe that xconq uses some kind of lisp for it's GDL language, but 
mostly to describe things (not sure).

Age Of Empires looks like to be using scheme or lisp kind of like for 
it's AI.

Check this article here:
http://grammerjack.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!1peCHL_zjY_VAAoE21WVgU4Q!114.entry

From: Geoffrey Summerhayes
Subject: Re: Program "close to the machine"
Date: 
Message-ID: <ab43eb3c-f0f6-4d84-b272-4be3cc3951fa@k13g2000hse.googlegroups.com>
On Aug 5, 5:25 pm, "Dimiter \"malkia\" Stanev" <······@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Well, there washttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Oriented_Assembly_Lisp
>
> But since Sony acquired Naughty Dog, it made them move to C++ so other
> studios can reuse their tech. As far as I know the idea of using Lisp
> there was so that they can have the kit (ps2 kit) running for a week
> with the same image, and they would be able to modify it on the fly.
> Also according to some sources they were even able to program the IOP
> (The PS1 chip included with PS2 for backward compability, otherwise used
> for I/O, sound, etc.) with it (but I can't be sure of it).

Judging from the post mortem on Uncharted, they are still using
a Lisp-based language for at least some portions of the game.

> Also Crack Dot Com's ABUSEhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abuse_(computer_game) uses some kind of
> Lisp (not Common Lisp or Scheme I think)

They wrote their own lisp in C. Around 100 primitives, plus
exposing the some of the games engine functions. They seperated
the memory into different areas to simplify garbage collection.
It's also a Lisp-1, although it looks like the design could be
made into a Lisp-N with a little work.

> I believe that xconq uses some kind of lisp for it's GDL language, but
> mostly to describe things (not sure).

Wasn't aware of this one, but GDL is definitely lispish.

> Age Of Empires looks like to be using scheme or lisp kind of like for
> it's AI.

Must be an earlier version, AoE III appears to use a C-like scripting
language.

After playing with DirectDraw a few years back, I came to the
conclusion that it would probably be better to write the engine
in C/C++ to handle at least the meshes and textures and expose
an interface to Lisp at a higher level.

As for scripting, CL would be fine for a closed source
game, but allowing for user mods would require some
additional writing. It would probably not be a good
idea to allow anyone access to the standard REPL.

---
Geoff
From: Pascal J. Bourguignon
Subject: Re: Program "close to the machine"
Date: 
Message-ID: <877ias13rj.fsf@hubble.informatimago.com>
Geoffrey Summerhayes <·······@gmail.com> writes:
> As for scripting, CL would be fine for a closed source
> game, but allowing for user mods would require some
> additional writing. It would probably not be a good
> idea to allow anyone access to the standard REPL.

Indeed.  People could start implementing News readers in your game.
Or spreadsheets!

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/

PLEASE NOTE: Some quantum physics theories suggest that when the
consumer is not directly observing this product, it may cease to
exist or will exist only in a vague and undetermined state.
From: Dimiter "malkia" Stanev
Subject: Re: Program "close to the machine"
Date: 
Message-ID: <6g3jsdFe69otU1@mid.individual.net>
Hi Geoff,

> After playing with DirectDraw a few years back, I came to the
> conclusion that it would probably be better to write the engine
> in C/C++ to handle at least the meshes and textures and expose
> an interface to Lisp at a higher level.

With the current iPhone development, Lisp would make total sense (for 
that case any language that allows - what Lisp usually does - change on 
the fly).

Although there is Simulator for the iPhone, sometimes you had to always 
do the stuff directly on the device (accelerometer, wifi, phone-related 
stuff), and although Objective-C is really cool (I love that language), 
it still does not beat something like what Lisp provides.

> As for scripting, CL would be fine for a closed source
> game, but allowing for user mods would require some
> additional writing. It would probably not be a good
> idea to allow anyone access to the standard REPL.
> 
> ---
> Geoff

Maybe, but some games allow you to have the console right now, but they 
go through (Quake, COD, etc.) different meausures to control their 
scripting language, or variables.
From: akopa
Subject: Re: Program "close to the machine"
Date: 
Message-ID: <07713095-4e09-42d5-b4e8-9622080d6ec8@34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>
On Aug 5, 4:25 pm, "Dimiter \"malkia\" Stanev" <······@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Well, there washttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Oriented_Assembly_Lisp
>
...
>
> Also Crack Dot Com's ABUSEhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abuse_(computer_game) uses some kind of
> Lisp (not Common Lisp or Scheme I think)
>
> I believe that xconq uses some kind of lisp for it's GDL language, but
> mostly to describe things (not sure).
>
> Age Of Empires looks like to be using scheme or lisp kind of like for
> it's AI.
>
> Check this article here:http://grammerjack.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!1peCHL_zjY_VAAoE21WVgU4Q!...

See also: http://zwizwa.be/archive/staapl.html
    A collection of abstractions for (meta)programming
microcontrollers from
    within PLT Scheme. The core of the system is a programmable code
generator
    structured around a functional concatenative macro language called
Coma with
    a pattern matching language for defining primitive code
transformers in Scheme.
    On top of this it includes a syntax frontend for creating Forth
style
    languages, a backend code generator for the Microchip PIC18
microcontroller
    architecture, and interaction tools for shortening the edit-
compile-run cycle.

Though the back-end is for a microcontroller, it seems like a good
basis for programming in other resource constricted environments.

Matt