Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!rochester!udel!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!uknet!newsfeed.ed.ac.uk!edcogsci!jeff
From: jeff@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Subject: Re: Myths and the Encyclopaedia Britannica
Message-ID: <DGnCIF.DLw@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <19951018T031310Z@naggum.no>
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 1995 13:36:35 GMT
Lines: 30

Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> writes:

>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.  ...

This view is kinda odd, since Lisp compilers have been around for
ages.  Lisp 1.5 had a compiler.  The 1965 (I think) book on Lisp
(something like "The Programming Language Lisp it's Operation and
Applications" -- hope I'm thinking of the right one) even contained
a compiler listing.

Moreover, Lisp can be very small.

>(BTW, LISP 1.5 Programmer's Manual is incredibly interesting reading.  my
>heartfelt thanks go to the nameless librarian at the University of Oslo who
>in 1975 secured a copy of this seminal 1962 paper.)

BTW, Mccarthy's 1961 CACM paper on Lisp is available on-line.
See http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/

-- jeff
