Subject: Re: What should S-expression based languages be called? (was: Re: Why is Scheme not a Lisp?) From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net> Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 02:01:18 GMT Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3225146489372030@naggum.net> * Erik Naggum > Is this intended to be anywhere close to what we are discussing here? Do > you _really_ not undestand what we are discussing, or is this just more > of your obnoxiousness? How about "Scheme is an elephant"? Does the fact > that this is meaningful tell you something about the English langauge? * Kent M Pitman | No, but it tells you something about what the speaker thinks of Scheme as | a product in the marketplace: that it "has legs" (i.e., will sell well ;) I had to look this up after I posted it just to be certain that I had not screwed up. My Tenth Edition Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary says elephan also means "One that is uncommonly large and hard to manage", which I think Scheme actually becomes once you tro use it. Incidentally, the elephant family is called Elephantidae, the only family of the order Proboscidea. "Pachyderm" is an unscientific term, referring to "animals with thick skin", including such diverse animals as elephant, rhinoceros, and pig. One emay conclude that Scheme freaks are not pachyderms in either literal or transferred meaning, but other than that, "pachyderm" has little use as a term. /// -- In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none. In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.