John McCarthy died today.
 

He must have been waiting to outlive someone who perverted his inventions
with dumb syntax:

(if cond then else) -> cond ? then : else

Re: John McCarthy died today.
 

On Oct 25, 1:44*am, Kaz Kylheku <k...@kylheku.com> wrote:

> He must have been waiting to outlive someone who perverted his inventions
> with dumb syntax:
>
> * (if cond then else) * -> * *cond ? then : else

seems to be a bad month for progammers

Re: John McCarthy died today.
 

On Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:44:13 +0000, Kaz Kylheku wrote:

> He must have been waiting to outlive someone who perverted his
> inventions with dumb syntax:
>
> (if cond then else) -> cond ? then : else

Requiescat in Pace.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_____________________________
< I want a WESSON OIL lease!! >
-----------------------------
\
\
___
{~._.~}
( Y )
()~*~()
(_)-(_)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: John McCarthy died today.
 

Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> writes:

> He must have been waiting to outlive someone who perverted his inventions
> with dumb syntax:
>
> (if cond then else) -> cond ? then : else

How quickly people forget! Originally (cond (c then) (t else)). John
McCarthy might well have considered (if ...) to be a perversion of his
invention!

--
Ben.

Re: John McCarthy died today.
 

On 10/24/2011 8:44 PM, Kaz Kylheku wrote:
> He must have been waiting to outlive someone who perverted his inventions
> with dumb syntax:
>
> (if cond then else) -> cond ? then : else

Re dumb syntax - in the eye of the beholder.
The ternary syntax is an /expression/ with type and value and, when used
on (symbolic) constants is indispensable in static initialization, in
particular, of const objects.
--
Ark

Re: John McCarthy died today.
 

Ark wrote:
) On 10/24/2011 8:44 PM, Kaz Kylheku wrote:
)> He must have been waiting to outlive someone who perverted his inventions
)> with dumb syntax:
)>
)> (if cond then else) -> cond ? then : else
)
) Re dumb syntax - in the eye of the beholder.
) The ternary syntax is an /expression/ with type and value and, when used
) on (symbolic) constants is indispensable in static initialization, in
) particular, of const objects.

(if cond then else) is *also* an expression with type and value, stupid.


SaSW, Willem
--
Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for any of the statements
made in the above text. For all I know I might be
drugged or something..
No I'm not paranoid. You all think I'm paranoid, don't you !
#EOT

Re: John McCarthy died today.
 

Willem <willem@toad.stack.nl> writes:
> Ark wrote:
> ) On 10/24/2011 8:44 PM, Kaz Kylheku wrote:
> )> He must have been waiting to outlive someone who perverted his inventions
> )> with dumb syntax:
> )>
> )> (if cond then else) -> cond ? then : else
> )
> ) Re dumb syntax - in the eye of the beholder.
> ) The ternary syntax is an /expression/ with type and value and, when used
> ) on (symbolic) constants is indispensable in static initialization, in
> ) particular, of const objects.
>
> (if cond then else) is *also* an expression with type and value, stupid.

I'm not sure I see anything by Ark that contradicts that, in particular as he
says precisely nothing about the lisp form.

Phil
--
Unix is simple. It just takes a genius to understand its simplicity
-- Dennis Ritchie (1941-2011), Unix Co-Creator

Re: John McCarthy died today.
 

Willem <willem@toad.stack.nl> writes:
> Ark wrote:
> ) On 10/24/2011 8:44 PM, Kaz Kylheku wrote:
> )> He must have been waiting to outlive someone who perverted his inventions
> )> with dumb syntax:
> )>
> )> (if cond then else) -> cond ? then : else
> )
> ) Re dumb syntax - in the eye of the beholder.
> ) The ternary syntax is an /expression/ with type and value and, when used
> ) on (symbolic) constants is indispensable in static initialization, in
> ) particular, of const objects.
>
> (if cond then else) is *also* an expression with type and value, stupid.

Perhaps you could express technical disagreements without calling
people stupid -- especially in a thread about the death of a
programming language pioneer.

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
"We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this."
-- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"

Re: John McCarthy died today.
 

On Oct 29, 6:57*pm, Keith Thompson <ks...@mib.org> wrote:
> Willem <wil...@toad.stack.nl> writes:
> > Ark wrote:
> > ) On 10/24/2011 8:44 PM, Kaz Kylheku wrote:
> > )> He must have been waiting to outlive someone who perverted his inventions
> > )> with dumb syntax:
> > )>
> > )> * *(if cond then else) * -> * * cond ? then : else
> > )
> > ) Re dumb syntax - in the eye of the beholder.
> > ) The ternary syntax is an /expression/ with type and value and, when used
> > ) on (symbolic) constants is indispensable in static initialization, in
> > ) particular, of const objects.
>
> > *(if cond then else) *is *also* an expression with type and value, stupid.
>
> Perhaps you could express technical disagreements without calling
> people stupid -- especially in a thread about the death of a
> programming language pioneer.

"dumb syntax" wasn'texactly a good start

Re: John McCarthy died today.
 

On 10/29/2011 1:51 PM, Willem wrote:
> Ark wrote:
> ) On 10/24/2011 8:44 PM, Kaz Kylheku wrote:
> )> He must have been waiting to outlive someone who perverted his inventions
> )> with dumb syntax:
> )>
> )> (if cond then else) -> cond ? then : else
> )
> ) Re dumb syntax - in the eye of the beholder.
> ) The ternary syntax is an /expression/ with type and value and, when used
> ) on (symbolic) constants is indispensable in static initialization, in
> ) particular, of const objects.
>
> (if cond then else) is *also* an expression with type and value, stupid.
>
>
> SaSW, Willem

A distinction between expression and type-and-value-less statement is a
Good Thing, perhaps contrary to what purists might say. The fact that in
C (and descendants) the assignment operator is an expression is indeed
unfortunate and has lead to innumerable bugs stemming from clever
coding. So there, smart Willem.