Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
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Subject: Re: Lisp advocacy (Was Re: another take on "C is faster than lisp")
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Date: Thu, 15 Sep 1994 20:12:01 +0000
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In article <Cw3123.6Cs@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk "Jeff Dalton" writes:

> The views of the immediate participants typically don't change
> right away, but they're not the only people who matter.

Is that a justification of endless "X vs Y" debates? I agree with
you about their views (if I understand you correctly), but I don't
see the value in everything I see in these debates. They look like
at least a few of participents are not looking for a constructive
result. I sense a desire for a _destructive_ result, like deminishing
interest language X or language Y.

These debates are often called "religious wars". I'm questioning the
constructive value of such wars, and the appropriate place to hold
them. I'm also assuming that comp.lang.lisp is a newsgroup for
constructive debates. Perhaps this is an impossible expectation,
I don't know. I've been using UseNet for about 2 years, so I'm
sure I'm not experienced enough to judge it in this respect. Plus,
I've seen similar debates elsewhere, with what appears to me to be
an equal lack constructive discussion, compared with discussions
that don't compare two or more languages. So I haven't found UseNet
to be any better or worse than other networks or systems for electronic
exchanges of opinion.

Thanks for your contribution to this debate. I'm just a little
puzzled by it. Could you please help me? Perhaps I've misunderstood
your post.

Martin Rodgers
-- 
Future generations are relying on us
It's a world we've made - Incubus	
We're living on a knife edge, looking for the ground -- Hawkwind
