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From: hbaker@netcom.com (Henry Baker)
Subject: Re: Myths and the Encyclopaedia Britannica
Message-ID: <hbaker-1810950901400001@10.0.2.15>
Sender: hbaker@netcom15.netcom.com
Organization: nil organization
References: <19951018T031310Z@naggum.no>
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 17:01:40 GMT
Lines: 30

In article <19951018T031310Z@naggum.no>, Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> wrote:

> I found this in the Britannica Online, and quote it here for purposes of
> review in the hope that someone of proper authority might like to notify
> them of their misconceptions:
> 
>     LISP.
> 
>     LISP (List Processor) is a language that is powerful in manipulating
>     lists of data or symbols rather than processing numerical data.  In
>     this sense, LISP is unique.  It requires large memory space and, since
>     it is usually processed by an interpreter, is slow in executing
>     programs.  LISP was developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s by a
>     group headed by John McCarthy, then a professor at the Massachusetts
>     Institute of Technology.  At that time, LISP was radically different
>     from other languages, such as FORTRAN and ALGOL.  Several versions have
>     been developed from the LISP 1.5 introduced by McCarthy; Common LISP,
>     released in 1984, is becoming the de facto standard of LISP.
> 
> the article is under Computers: Computer software: PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES,
> and is most easily reached by searching for "john ADJ mccarthy".  (visit
> http://www.eb.com/ for a free, seven-day trial.)

I saw that one of the Technical Advisors to EB is a professor of AI/CS at
Northwestern, and a big Lisper (ex-Yale prof).  Perhaps he can get this piece
of crap revised.

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