Asp Forum - Common Lisp and Scheme -- Guy L. Steele quote.

Pascal J. Bourguignon

3/27/2016 12:07:00 AM

Extract from the foreword to
Scheme and the Art of Programming
(1989) Springer & Friedman.

Carpentry is one of my hobbies. I make wooden toys doll houses and â??
trucks and blocks and jigsaw puzzles â?? for my children, and I rebuild
the back stairs when necessary. My shop is not particularly complete,
but it contains five hammers, six saws, thirty screwdrivers (one of
them electric, with forty interchangeable tips), and hundreds of drill
bits. Each has a specific purpose, and for precision work most cannot
be replaced by any combination of the others. (On the other hand, I
have to admit that if I break a bit I can usually come near enough in
a pinch with the next closest size. ) In some cases the business ends
of several tools are the same, but they have different handles. I
have a set of screwdrivers with wooden handles that I favor for long
tasks, because they are less likely to cause blisters; another set
with more deeply grooved plastic handles affords a tighter grip for
greater torque.

Let me tell you, it is a joy to stand in the middle of a well-equipped
shop and, when a particular task comes to hand, to reach out to the
shelf or pegboard and grab precisely the tool needed for the job.
That is what Common Lisp, or COBOL, or Fortran is like. But it takes
years of experience to appreciate the fine distinctions.

I also carry a Swiss army knife, the Victorinox "Craftsman" model. It
is a carpenter's shop in miniature. It has only one or two of each
thing: two knives (large and small), two flat screwdrivers (large and
small) and one Phillips screwdriver, a file, a saw, an excellent pair
of scissors, a ruler (3 in/7. 5 cm), an awl, bottle opener, can
opener, tweezers, and of course the traditional plastic toothpick. It
weighs five ounces (142 gm).

Now, I wouldn't want to rebuild my back stairs using only a Swiss army
knife. But let me tell you, it is a joy to wander about in my life
feeling virtually unburdened and yet, when some minor repair task
comes to hand, to reach into my pocket and have such a variety of
tools at my disposal. (The saw is only three inches long, but
extremely sharp. I have used it to modify office furniture to
accommodate Ethernet cables. ) And my pocket tool set is perfectly
adequate for illustrating the essence of saw-ness or screwdriver-ness
to the interested novice, such as my six- year-old.

The original Scheme, which Gerald Jay Sussman and I defined â?? or
rather, it seemed to me, discovered â?? in 1975, was a Swiss army knife.
Hewing close to the spirit of Alonzo Church's lambda calculus, it had
just one of anything if it had one at all.

-- Guy L. Steele Jr.

Very nice comparison of CL vs. scheme ;-)

--
__Pascal Bourguignon__ http://www.informat...
â??The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a
dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to
keep the man from touching the equipment.â? -- Carl Bass CEO Autodesk

3 Answers

William James

3/27/2016 2:33:00 AM

Pascal J. Bourguignon wrote:

> The original Scheme, which Gerald Jay Sussman and I defined â?? or
> rather, it seemed to me, discovered â?? in 1975, was a Swiss army knife.
> Hewing close to the spirit of Alonzo Church's lambda calculus, it had
> just one of anything if it had one at all.
>
> -- Guy L. Steele Jr.
>
>
> Very nice comparison of CL vs. scheme ;-)

He wrote: "original Scheme".

He didn't write: "R7RS Scheme" or "Bigloo Scheme" or "Gauche Scheme"
or "Racket".

One should never expect honesty, logic, common sense, or decency
from a worshipper of CL (COBOL-Like).

He should expect that the worshipper, when a threat to his god is detected,
will be willing to resort to any sort of trickery.

William James

3/27/2016 3:13:00 AM

MatzLisp (Ruby):

"
I have a set of screwdrivers with wooden handles that I favor for long
tasks, because they are less likely to cause blisters; another set
with more deeply grooved plastic handles affords a tighter grip for
greater torque.
Let me tell you, it is a joy to stand in the middle of a well-equipped
shop and, when a particular task comes to hand, to reach out to the
shelf or pegboard and grab precisely the tool needed for the job.
That is what Common Lisp, or COBOL, or Fortran is like.
".
scan(/(likel.*);|(Com.*)l/).flatten.compact.reverse.join

===>
"Common Lisp, or COBOL, or Fortran is likely to cause blisters"

Don't try this is in CL (COBOL-Like); it's not a well-equipped
shop, having no regular-expression engine.

It doesn't even have a command to flatten a list.

--
He has nothing but kind sentiments for those who would destroy his home and
family.... He is universally tolerant.... If he has any principles, he keeps
them well concealed.... He is, to the extent of his abilities, exactly like
the next citizen, who, he trusts, is trying to be exactly like him: a faceless,
characterless putty-man. --- Father Feeney; "Should Hate Be Outlawed?"

Marco Antoniotti

3/27/2016 9:02:00 AM

Ok.

I am in trolls' feedeng mode today 3:)

On Sunday, March 27, 2016 at 4:36:06 AM UTC+2, WJ wrote:
> Pascal J. Bourguignon wrote:
>
> > The original Scheme, which Gerald Jay Sussman and I defined -- or
> > rather, it seemed to me, discovered -- in 1975, was a Swiss army knife.
> > Hewing close to the spirit of Alonzo Church's lambda calculus, it had
> > just one of anything if it had one at all.
> >
> > -- Guy L. Steele Jr.
> >
> >
> > Very nice comparison of CL vs. scheme ;-)
>
> He wrote: "original Scheme".
>
> He didn't write: "R7RS Scheme" or "Bigloo Scheme" or "Gauche Scheme"
> or "Racket".

Of course he didn't. He know better, unlike you.

We all know that the various Schemes you mention (although fine on their own), had to add all this SFRIs etc etc etc, in order to "come close" to the *original* Common Lisp.

Now. I expect you to troll us in Monicelli from now on 3:) (*)

Cheers
--
MA

(*) Alberto Riva and other italians will surely appreciate this one :) :) :)

comp.lang.lisp

Common Lisp and Scheme -- Guy L. Steele quote.

Pascal J. Bourguignon

William James

William James

Marco Antoniotti

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