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comp.lang.lisp

Help on literature quote

Sebastian Christ

3/17/2016 7:17:00 PM

Hi c.l.l.,

somewhere I read that

"Lisp is for writing programs nobody knows how to write[...]"

or similar, but I can't remember where exactly I've read this.

Does anybody recognize the above quote an knows where to find it? I'd
like to use it in my Master's thesis and want to reference it properly.

Thanks to all of you.

Regards,
Sebastian

--
Sebastian (Rudolfo) Christ
http://rudolfochrist...
GPG Fingerprint: 306D 8FD3 DFB6 4E44 5061
CE71 6407 D6F8 2AC5 55DD
15 Answers

Nicolas Neuss

3/17/2016 8:13:00 PM

0

Sebastian Christ <rudolfo.christ@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi c.l.l.,
>
> somewhere I read that
>
> "Lisp is for writing programs nobody knows how to write[...]"
>
> or similar, but I can't remember where exactly I've read this.
>
> Does anybody recognize the above quote an knows where to find it? I'd
> like to use it in my Master's thesis and want to reference it properly.
>
> Thanks to all of you.
>
> Regards,
> Sebastian

Maybe (see http://www.paulgraham.com/q...)

"Lisp has jokingly been called "the most intelligent way to misuse a computer". I think that description is a great compliment because it transmits the full flavor of liberation: it has assisted a number of our most gifted fellow humans in thinking previously impossible thoughts."

- Edsger Dijkstra, CACM, 15:10

Kaz Kylheku

3/17/2016 9:08:00 PM

0

On 2016-03-17, Sebastian Christ <rudolfo.christ@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi c.l.l.,
>
> somewhere I read that
>
> "Lisp is for writing programs nobody knows how to write[...]"

I read that too.

Kent Pitman writes about prototyping here:

http://www.nhplace.com/kent/PS/Hind...

This is not quite that source you're looking for.

There is "Common Lisp --- Myths and Legends":

http://www.lispworks.com/products/myths_and_le...

Here Pitman and Levine say: "Experience shows that Lisp excels at
dealing with partially specified problems and problems whose essential
nature is not fully known at the outset."

But I swear I have seen it put in similar words to "programs nobody knows
how to write".

Sebastian Christ

3/17/2016 10:26:00 PM

0

On 2016-03-17 21:8, Kaz Kylheku <330-706-9395@kylheku.com> wrote:
> But I swear I have seen it put in similar words to "programs nobody knows
> how to write".

I tought I've read this exactly sentence in of Dick Gabriel's essays but
I'm unable to find it. So, perhaps I'm wrong on that.

Arggh. I'm so often in that situation. Knowing I've read something but
unable to find the specific reference. I hate this.

Thanks anyway.

Regards,
Sebastian

--
Sebastian (Rudolfo) Christ
http://rudolfochrist...
GPG Fingerprint: 306D 8FD3 DFB6 4E44 5061
CE71 6407 D6F8 2AC5 55DD

ram

3/17/2016 11:53:00 PM

0

Sebastian Christ <rudolfo.christ@gmail.com> writes:
>Arggh. I'm so often in that situation. Knowing I've read something but
>unable to find the specific reference. I hate this.

I know how this feels. Therefore, I now take care to collect
all pertinent quotations in a special file.

There once was a joke about languages in the Usenet I could
not find again. You reminded me of this joke, and so I started
a new search. This time I found it. Has nothing to do with
LISP, but here it is:

A Frenchman, a German and an Englishman were arguing
about which of their respective languages was the best.

The Frenchman said, "French is the language of romance,
the most beautiful language in the world."

The German said, "German is the language of science and
technology, the language most fitted to the needs of the
twentieth century."

And the Englishman said, "Nonsense! There"s only one
decent language, and that"s English.

We English say what we mean - no messing about. Take
this for instance." He held up a light-bulb.
"You Frenchmen call it an 'ampoule'. And you Germans call
it a 'gluhbirne'.

We in England simply call it a light-bulb, which, after
all, is precisely what it is."

You Pascal people write »sin( x )«, and you UPN people write
»x sin«. But in LISP, we write »( sin x )«, which after all,
is precisely what it is - the cons of the atom »sin« and the
list »( x )«.

Richard Fateman

3/18/2016 1:30:00 AM

0

This too has nothing to do with Lisp. Or almost nothing.
In a car, (I'm driving) my wife gets a cell phone call that
an acquaintance had a stroke. I asked her how
did they know he had a stroke? Sorry, No details available.
So I suggested that my wife ask Siri "what are the signs of a stroke?"
Indeed Siri came back with an answer, something unintelligible
(to my wife...) from the Wolfram Alpha (Mathematica) Web site.
She tried again and got the same response.

So what does this have to do with your joke?

Hours later, after arriving home, it occurred to me that Siri
was looking for sines of stroke. In lisp, (sin stroke).


On 3/17/2016 4:53 PM, Stefan Ram wrote:
> Sebastian Christ <rudolfo.christ@gmail.com> writes:
>
.... snip...
>
> You Pascal people write »sin( x )«, and you UPN people write
> »x sin«. But in LISP, we write »( sin x )«, which after all,
> is precisely what it is - the cons of the atom »sin« and the
> list »( x )«.
>

oh, signs of a stroke..
http://www.stroke.org/understand-stroke/recognizing-strok...

RJF.

Kenneth Tilton

3/18/2016 9:25:00 AM

0

On Thursday, March 17, 2016 at 3:17:46 PM UTC-4, Sebastian Christ wrote:
> Hi c.l.l.,
>
> somewhere I read that
>
> "Lisp is for writing programs nobody knows how to write[...]"
>
> or similar, but I can't remember where exactly I've read this.
>
> Does anybody recognize the above quote an knows where to find it? I'd
> like to use it in my Master's thesis and want to reference it properly.
>
> Thanks to all of you.
>
> Regards,
> Sebastian
>
> --
> Sebastian (Rudolfo) Christ
> http://rudolfochrist...
> GPG Fingerprint: 306D 8FD3 DFB6 4E44 5061
> CE71 6407 D6F8 2AC5 55DD

I think you might mean Paul Graham in On Lisp http://ep.yimg.com/ty/cdn/paulgraham/..., page 2: "And if you're not
sure yet what kind of program you're writing, it's a safe bet to write it in Lisp."

Kenneth Tilton

3/18/2016 9:27:00 AM

0

On Friday, March 18, 2016 at 5:24:41 AM UTC-4, His Kennyness wrote:
> On Thursday, March 17, 2016 at 3:17:46 PM UTC-4, Sebastian Christ wrote:
> > Hi c.l.l.,
> >
> > somewhere I read that
> >
> > "Lisp is for writing programs nobody knows how to write[...]"
> >
> > or similar, but I can't remember where exactly I've read this.
> >
> > Does anybody recognize the above quote an knows where to find it? I'd
> > like to use it in my Master's thesis and want to reference it properly.
> >
> > Thanks to all of you.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Sebastian
> >
> > --
> > Sebastian (Rudolfo) Christ
> > http://rudolfochrist...
> > GPG Fingerprint: 306D 8FD3 DFB6 4E44 5061
> > CE71 6407 D6F8 2AC5 55DD
>
> I think you might mean Paul Graham in On Lisp http://ep.yimg.com/ty/cdn/paulgraham/..., page 2: "And if you're not
> sure yet what kind of program you're writing, it's a safe bet to write it in Lisp."

btw, the preface (introduction?) and first chapter of On Lisp have a lot of great quotes, as does http://www.paulgraham.co...

Sebastian Christ

3/18/2016 10:18:00 AM

0

On 2016-03-17 23:53, ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote:
>
> Sebastian Christ <rudolfo.christ@gmail.com> writes:
>> Arggh. I'm so often in that situation. Knowing I've read something but
>> unable to find the specific reference. I hate this.
>
> I know how this feels. Therefore, I now take care to collect
> all pertinent quotations in a special file.

Thanks for the tip. I also maintain such a file. But it seems the time
I've read the above quote it wasn't worthy to be added to it. Sad
:(

> There once was a joke about languages in the Usenet I could
> not find again. You reminded me of this joke, and so I started
> a new search. This time I found it. Has nothing to do with
> LISP, but here it is:
>
> A Frenchman, a German and an Englishman were arguing
> about which of their respective languages was the best.
>
> The Frenchman said, "French is the language of romance,
> the most beautiful language in the world."
>
> The German said, "German is the language of science and
> technology, the language most fitted to the needs of the
> twentieth century."
>
> And the Englishman said, "Nonsense! There"s only one
> decent language, and that"s English.
>
> We English say what we mean - no messing about. Take
> this for instance." He held up a light-bulb.
> "You Frenchmen call it an 'ampoule'. And you Germans call
> it a 'gluhbirne'.
>
> We in England simply call it a light-bulb, which, after
> all, is precisely what it is."
>
> You Pascal people write »sin( x )«, and you UPN people write
> »x sin«. But in LISP, we write »( sin x )«, which after all,
> is precisely what it is - the cons of the atom »sin« and the
> list »( x )«.
>
>
--
Sebastian (Rudolfo) Christ
http://rudolfochrist...
GPG Fingerprint: 306D 8FD3 DFB6 4E44 5061
CE71 6407 D6F8 2AC5 55DD

Barry Margolin

3/18/2016 10:37:00 AM

0

In article <m21t78zzgg.fsf@gmail.com>,
Sebastian Christ <rudolfo.christ@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi c.l.l.,
>
> somewhere I read that
>
> "Lisp is for writing programs nobody knows how to write[...]"
>
> or similar, but I can't remember where exactly I've read this.
>
> Does anybody recognize the above quote an knows where to find it? I'd
> like to use it in my Master's thesis and want to reference it properly.

It sounds like a variation of a definition I've seen of Artificial
Intelligence, which is any type of computer application we don't yet
know how to implement. Once we figure out the algorithm it's no longer
AI, it's just programming.

--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***

Sebastian Christ

3/18/2016 10:51:00 AM

0

On 2016-03-18 2:24, His Kennyness <kentilton@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think you might mean Paul Graham in On Lisp
> http://ep.yimg.com/ty/cdn/paulgraham/..., page 2: "And if
> you're not sure yet what kind of program you're writing, it's a safe
> bet to write it in Lisp."

Unfortunately not. When I go deep down into my head I remember that the
whole paragraph the quote comes from was about early AI. Presumably from
the MIT AI Lab. That the hackers there were the first who wrote AI
programs and that Lisp was the perfect tool because "Lisp let's you
write programs nobody knows how to write."

I think that's the background.

Regards,
Sebastian

>
--
Sebastian (Rudolfo) Christ
http://rudolfochrist...
GPG Fingerprint: 306D 8FD3 DFB6 4E44 5061
CE71 6407 D6F8 2AC5 55DD