From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 107f24,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid107f24,public X-Google-Thread: f4fd2,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gidf4fd2,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,ea8ea502d35ca2ce X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1164ba,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid1164ba,public X-Google-Thread: 103d24,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid103d24,public X-Google-Thread: 114809,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid114809,public X-Google-Thread: 10259a,626a0a064b320310 X-Google-Attributes: gid10259a,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-05-15 10:55:04 PST Path: archiver1.sj.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!sn-xit-02!sn-xit-03!supernews.com!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newsxfer.eecs.umich.edu!news.bu.edu!newshost.Dartmouth.EDU!not-for-mail From: "FM" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.basic,comp.lang.functional,comp.lang.scheme,comp.lang.perl Subject: Re: Beginner's Language? Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 13:14:51 -0400 Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA Message-ID: <9dro9p$t1r$1@merrimack.Dartmouth.EDU> References: <9cukad$nn68@news-dxb> <9ddhll$b8o@goaway.cc.monash.edu.au> <9dq2mr$8bduv$1@fido.engr.sgi.com> <9dr5hi$jeh5f$1@ID-37382.news.dfncis.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: north-dhcp-235.dartmouth.edu X-Trace: merrimack.Dartmouth.EDU 989947001 29755 129.170.146.235 (15 May 2001 17:16:41 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@Dartmouth.EDU NNTP-Posting-Date: 15 May 2001 17:16:41 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: archiver1.sj.google.com comp.lang.ada:7527 comp.lang.lisp:10103 comp.lang.smalltalk:9687 comp.lang.functional:5657 comp.lang.scheme:3825 comp.lang.perl:2758 Date: 2001-05-15T17:16:41+00:00 List-Id: "Andreas Krennmair" wrote: > Rob Warnock wrote: > > And since this thread included a considerable amount of Lisp/Scheme-bashing > > because the syntax isn't "natural" (by some opinions), one more excerpt: > > > > Projects promoting programming in "natural language" are > > intrinsically doomed to fail. > And that's what Lisp does, according to Paul Foley. He expressed the sentence > "My girlfriend's name is Suzy and her age is 17" in Lisp via > (and (name (girlfriend me) Suzy) (age her 17)) > To quote him: > "and there you have it -- a perfect representation of natural language!" > > ergo: Lisp is intrinsically doomed to fail. There's a *clear* distinction between a metalanguage that *could* be used to represent X and X itself. Lisp does not promote programming in the above style. That it makes manipulation of such representation extremely trivial is a point in its favor. In any case, I still find it odd that you'd claim a lot of things about Lisp just a few days after proclaiming yourself as "an absolute beginner with Lisp." Dan.