Subject: Re: Rudeness index was Looking for Lisp compiler From: Erik Naggum <erik@erik.naggum.no> Date: 07 Jan 2003 04:33:47 +0000 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3250902827314549@erik.naggum.no> * Matthew Danish | I have asked this very question on this newsgroup before: What would | be a better name for CAR and CDR? [...] If you can think of better | names, I would like to hear it. All kinds of dual opposites would do. Some well-known examples include up, down; top, bottom; charm, strange; west, east; north, south; in, out; blue, red; mit, psu; pgp, gpg; cbs, fox. | (CAR and CDR also have the advantage that abbreviations such as | CADDR for nested applications can be easily understood, though LHS | and RHS have similar.) This is an anachronistic argument. If the names were not similar in this way, the way to refer to other elements would also change. For instance, you might indicate a position in a tree by the number of branches to skip on alternating left and right sides before you walk down a branch in the other direction. | If you think that a data structure which simply contains two objects | (and has been accepted by many as a basis for constructing singly- | linked lists, among other things) is a design flaw, then your short- | sightedness is absolutely astonishing. What of it? Who cares? He expressed his opinion and he appears extremely unlikely to change it. Nobody would dream of taking it seriously if they had their wits about them. Why do you? | If you think that conses are the "basis of Lisp" then you seriously | need to start reading. Why should he? Geez, the guy is obviously so full of hot air and has such an inflated ego that it interferes with weather balloons and supersonic aircraft. Anyone who needs to figure out the comp.lang.lisp community should take notes. The treatment Edward G. Nilges has received here shows a very deep and serious /concern/ for what people believe, not just about our (Common) Lisp, but in general. Of course, telling people what they should believe is about as welcome as missionaries, but our conviction that We know what is true and They do not probably makes Us inherently oblivious to how They feel about it. I thought if I had inspired anything of importance, it was not to have and show concern for all things very strongly, but to detect idiots early. If all this deeply felt concern for what other people believe is a product of my attempts to make people aware of what is /really/ true about Common Lisp and other things I know about, I am sorry. You should have adopted my Moron Early Warning System, MEWS (so I am an ailurophile /and/ a punster; sue me), instead. But let us have another row over rudeness, again. They're /fun/! -- Erik Naggum, Oslo, Norway Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder. Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.