Darren New wrote:

>> - Built a recursive Turtle-style fractal plotter.
> 
> I could do that.

Course you could. ;-)

>> - Built a Lambda calculus interpretter.
> 
> I could probably do that really inefficiently, if I first sat down and 
> learned Lambda calculus.

Um, dude... it's the Lambda calculus! Inefficiency is built-in. We're 
talking about a programming language where the program to calculate 2+2 
barely fits on one line. ;-)

>> - Built a mini-Mathematica engine.
> 
> I could probably do that with a whole bunch of work and learning, 
> depending on what you mean, as long as the actual mathematical notation 
> didn't get in the way.

I mean it could take a simple mathematical expression and collect like 
terms, fold constants, and a few simple things like that.

>> - Built a modular software sound synthesizer.
> 
> I have no idea how to do that. I've never done anything with sound, and 
> barely have used Fourier transforms on visual data.

See my other reply. It involved envelope generators, amplitude shaping, 
mixing, variable-frequency oscilators [which produce a Fourier series], 
and FM operators. Only the latter is remotely complicated; ask Wolfram 
Alpha about "sin(x + pi sin(x))".

> (Did you see the virtual beat-box one in Haskell?
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeks3mPvlGU )

No, but... hmm, this looks like the kind of crazy stuff a Haskeller 
would do. (Pity none of this works on Windoze.)

>> - Built a collection of data compression modules.
> 
> I could probably do that with good explanations of how the compression 
> works. I probably couldn't invent any kind of useful compression 
> algorithm. Assuming you mean lossless compression.

Yeah, I've yet to get any lossy algorithm to work. (If by "work" you 
mean "produce something vaguely resembling the input".) I only did stuff 
like RLE, LZW, Huffman, etc.

>> - Built a mini-Prolog interpretter.
> 
> I barely remember how a prolog interpreter works, let alone how to code 
> one. I think I did a unification engine back in college for a class 
> assignment, tho.

Heh. This coming from the guy who was telling *me* how unification 
works. :-P

> So there you go. Mandelbrot and Turtle fractals are about the only thing 
> on your list I could do off the top of my head without sitting down for 
> a day or more to learn what I need to know. I don't think there's 
> anything on your list I *couldn't* do. You just wouldn't want to pay me 
> to learn it first, given folks like you are looking for jobs. :-)

Hmm... interesting perspective.

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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