Problems with Skyeye the ARM simulator on Mac OS X

These days I have tried to make skyeye ARM simulator work on Mac OS X with full options enabled, but still to no avail.

I know it should work without DBCT (direct byte code translation) and BFD as README says, but DBCT is beneficial for my intended workloads.

As of 1.2.4, it does not pass even the configuration check if you enable DBCT and BFD. Though a little hack in the check script for DBCT made it go through the check (with BFD disabled), build fails with:

ld: in binary/libarm.a(arm2x86.o), in section __TEXT,__text reloc 40: R_ABS reloc but no absolute symbol at target address

collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

Probably I need to use gnu ld instead.

Parser in Haskell

The first chapter of the book is mostly about writing a parser in Miranda (the code is in Haskell, though).

It does not use monads. You can see how the implementation can be refined with monads if you compare it with a monadic parser of today.

Carbon Emacs

So I abandoned Aqua Emacs and am now using Carbon Emacs. Emacs variants such as XEmacs, Meadow, Aqua Emacs all failed with me... I just didn't feel like Emacs. GNU Emacs, I mean.

A little Haskeller

Started reading Implementing functional languages: a tutorial.

I'm not much interested in writing a compiler (I wish I could, though), but this tutorial is useful for me. After all, a compiler implementation needs almost every kind of topics. And Simon Peyton Jones is a great author - you can see that from his other papers.

This book was written for Miranda, an ancestor of Haskell. That's okay, but the code in text is in Miranda while sample code seems to be in Haskell. They have many in common and I can easily guess how the description in text part should be fixed, still it's annoying.

I read this book (the dead tree version available from CafePress) while commuting on the train and unable to do exercises. Good excuse to get Nokia N810 or iRex iLiad?

Does it burn up to Fahrenheit 451?

As an Amazon-dependent bookworm, I have to throw some words about Amazon Kindle, though I cannot get a touch on it here in Tokyo.

I had used 1st generation Sony Reader for a month or so before, and from that experience, I find several points remarkable:

• Distibution model - Distribution is done through EVDO wireless network without no 'visible' fee. Of course the cost is included in the price - you can think of it as 'printing' through wireless network to the Kindle device instead of printing on paper. You don't pay for paper and ink, but pay for network.
• User interface - The vertical LCD in the right and the scroll wheel seems to work as a workaround to the slow redraw problem of E-ink. It is a huge improvement from existing E-ink based devices. UI of Sony Reader was, well, just not adequate. It presented all visual feedbacks on sluggish E-ink display, which made the user interface uncomfortable.
• Faster screen redraw - From the video on the product page, you can see the screen is redrawn in a flash, as the one of latest Sony Reader 505 is heralded. I don't think former generation is not usable at all, but the faster the better.
• Annotations - You can add annotations using the keyboard. That's another advantage over Sony Reader.
  

One of the problems for me is, as others pointed out, it does not support PDF natively. Amazon says it can convert user made PDFs to Kindle format, but from bitter experience of PDF on Sony Reader, I don't expect much. Probably I opt for iRex iLiad just for that.

As for its 'bookness' (Jeff Bezos touted it has all features that dead tree books have), it achieved quite well. Though some complain just because it is not made of paper and ink ("It does not smell ink!"), I have no attachment to dead tree books. Of course it cannot be used without electricity, but dead tree books have their own weakness.

Anyway I will wait and see how it goes, until it is available in Japan.