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From: hbaker@netcom.com (Henry Baker)
Subject: Re: Unix Weenies (formerly: Removing READ)
Message-ID: <hbaker-0103951016290001@192.0.2.1>
Sender: hbaker@netcom8.netcom.com
Organization: nil
References: <SCHWARTZ.95Feb27183623@galapagos.cse.psu.edu> <28Feb1995.095828.Alan@LCS.MIT.EDU> <hbaker-2802950920590001@192.0.2.1> <3j0jca$ebg@mudraker.mtholyoke.edu>
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 1995 18:14:51 GMT
Lines: 37

In article <3j0jca$ebg@mudraker.mtholyoke.edu>, jbotz@mtholyoke.edu
(Jurgen Botz) wrote:

> In article <hbaker-2802950920590001@192.0.2.1>,
> Henry Baker <hbaker@netcom.com> wrote:
> >I don't know if that was their intent, but my understanding of the Scheme
> >community is that they wanted to clean up existing Lisp semantics.  Such
> >a cleanup job doesn't necessarily introduce new features, but refines the
> >ones that are already there.
> 
> Scheme is not a "cleaned-up Lisp".  It's really a different language
> with a similar syntax and which shares some of the same building blocks
> (lists, S-exps).
> 
> >One look at the Common Lisp book (god forbid that you accidently drop
> >the book on your foot) indicates that such cleanup is long overdue.
> >Thus, Scheme (and the ANSI Lisp standardization effort) has
> >essentially been a backward looking project.
> 
> You have it completely bass-ackwards.  Scheme came before Common Lisp.
> Common Lisp was an attempt to create a unified Lisp that borrowed some
> of Scheme's advances over Lisp (like static scoping).  Scheme was a
> very forward-looking project that introduced some pretty novel ideas
> (closures, continuations) which to this day are found in few other
> languages.  At the time of its inception Scheme was a far more powerful
> language than any Lisp, and in many ways it still is.  The fact that
> Scheme is a small language is just the icing on the cake and in no way
> detracts from that claim.

I'm looking at this with the perspective of someone who has used Lisp
for nearly 25 years, including before both Scheme and Common Lisp.

Scheme was a very forward looking project that in 1975-77
(re-)introduced closures (upward funargs) back into Lisp (Interlisp never
lost them), and introduced Carl Hewitt's (and Landin's, etc.) ideas about
continuations into Lisp.  However, this introduction was done in 1975-77, so I
was talking about what has gone on in the more recent time frame.
