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From: Ian Wild <ian.wild@eurocontrol.int>
Organization: Eurocontrol
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Subject: Re: ASCL a doomed idea?
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Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 10:08:45 GMT
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Date: 2001-12-12T10:08:45+00:00
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Nick Roberts wrote:
> 
> ... There are several programming languages in which a string is
> explicitly a list. Think about LISP.

There may indeed be several such languages, but Lisp isn't
one of them  A Lisp string is an array of characters.

  (subtypep 'string 'array)  ==> T 


> It seems utterly bizarre and beyond all
> reason to me to suggest that a string is not, in general, a kind of list.

  (subtypep 'string 'list)  ==> NIL


> It's a list of characters. 

Apparently not.

> Isn't that something a four-year-old would
> understand?

Maybe.  But your typical 4yo doesn't care about O(n) v O(1)
access times.