Python's Lisp heritage

[Alwyn]

In <mailman.1019299357.11513.python-list at python.org> "James J. Besemer"
<jb at cascade-sys.com> wrote:
>
>Note that CAR and CDR stand for Contents Address Register and Contents
>Data Register.  The original Lisp implementation (before some of you
>were born) was very specific to the IBM 709X architecture, in which it
>was easy to pack two addresses into a single word (with a
>few bits to spare). 

It was an IBM 704 to start with, actually. CAR stood for 'Contents of the
Address part of Register number' and CDR for 'Contents of the Decrement
part of Register number'. See:
http://www
-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/history/lisp/node2.html#SECTION00020000000000000000


Alwyn