Car and cdr (Re: Python syntax in Lisp and Scheme)

Pascal Bourguignon spam at thalassa.informatimago.com
Fri Oct 17 16:20:21 EDT 2003


Pascal Costanza <costanza at web.de> writes:

> Hartmann Schaffer wrote:
> 
> > In article <bmgh32$1a32$1 at f1node01.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>,
> > 	Pascal Costanza <costanza at web.de> writes:
> > 
> >>...
> >> I think that's the essential point here. The advantage of the names
> >> car and cdr is that they _don't_ mean anything specific.
> > gdee, you should read early lisp history ;-).  car and cdr ha[d|ve] a
> > very specific meaning
> 
> Yes, but noone (noone at all) refers to that meaning anymore. It's a
> historical accident that doesn't really matter anymore when developing
> code.

For that matter,  even the very first LISP  _programmer_ did not refer
to that meaning either.

Only the _implementer_ of the first LISP did.

-- 
__Pascal_Bourguignon__
http://www.informatimago.com/
Do not adjust your mind, there is a fault in reality.
Lying for having sex or lying for making war?  Trust US presidents :-(




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