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When did Lisp start using symbols for arithmetic?
The Next CEO of Stack OverflowWhen did computers start being able to take both 115 and 230 volts?PC for DMV knowledge test - since when?When did CPUs start using page mode DRAM?When did smart terminals arrive?When did README files start showing up in software?When did Multics begin using '>' as a pathname separator?When did schools stop caring about form factor?When did MOS Technology upgrade to 5µm?Why was the 6809 so expensive?When did “Zen” in computer programming become a thing?
Looking through the August 1979 issue of Byte magazine, it discusses a dialect of Lisp in which arithmetic operations are denoted by words like PLUS and TIMES.
Later dialects like Common Lisp and Scheme use the symbols common to other languages like + and *.
When did Lisp generally switch from one convention to the other?
history lisp
asked 2 days ago
rwallacerwallace
10.2k451149
add a comment |
Looking through the August 1979 issue of Byte magazine, it discusses a dialect of Lisp in which arithmetic operations are denoted by words like PLUS and TIMES.
Later dialects like Common Lisp and Scheme use the symbols common to other languages like + and *.
When did Lisp generally switch from one convention to the other?
history lisp
asked 2 days ago
rwallacerwallace
10.2k451149
1
Are you able to give more information about the dialect of Lisp you were just reading about?
– Wilson
2 days ago
@Wilson It doesn't seem to say what the dialect is specifically called, or if it does, I missed it. The Byte issue can be downloaded in PDF if you want to take a look yourself.
– rwallace
yesterday
add a comment |
Looking through the August 1979 issue of Byte magazine, it discusses a dialect of Lisp in which arithmetic operations are denoted by words like PLUS and TIMES.
Later dialects like Common Lisp and Scheme use the symbols common to other languages like + and *.
When did Lisp generally switch from one convention to the other?
history lisp
asked 2 days ago
rwallacerwallace
10.2k451149
Looking through the August 1979 issue of Byte magazine, it discusses a dialect of Lisp in which arithmetic operations are denoted by words like PLUS and TIMES.
Later dialects like Common Lisp and Scheme use the symbols common to other languages like + and *.
When did Lisp generally switch from one convention to the other?
history lisp
history lisp
asked 2 days ago
rwallacerwallace
10.2k451149
asked 2 days ago
rwallacerwallace
10.2k451149
asked 2 days ago
rwallacerwallace
10.2k451149
asked 2 days ago
rwallacerwallace
10.2k451149
asked 2 days ago
rwallacerwallace
10.2k451149
10.2k451149
1
Are you able to give more information about the dialect of Lisp you were just reading about?
– Wilson
2 days ago
@Wilson It doesn't seem to say what the dialect is specifically called, or if it does, I missed it. The Byte issue can be downloaded in PDF if you want to take a look yourself.
– rwallace
yesterday
add a comment |
1
Are you able to give more information about the dialect of Lisp you were just reading about?
– Wilson
2 days ago
@Wilson It doesn't seem to say what the dialect is specifically called, or if it does, I missed it. The Byte issue can be downloaded in PDF if you want to take a look yourself.
– rwallace
yesterday
1
1
Are you able to give more information about the dialect of Lisp you were just reading about?
– Wilson
2 days ago
Are you able to give more information about the dialect of Lisp you were just reading about?
– Wilson
2 days ago
@Wilson It doesn't seem to say what the dialect is specifically called, or if it does, I missed it. The Byte issue can be downloaded in PDF if you want to take a look yourself.
– rwallace
yesterday
@Wilson It doesn't seem to say what the dialect is specifically called, or if it does, I missed it. The Byte issue can be downloaded in PDF if you want to take a look yourself.
– rwallace
yesterday
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
Lisp is not a single language, but a whole ecosystem of different languages. Moreover, there's no standard covering all Lisps, like with C or Fortran, so for this reason, + and plus are equally "valid".
When Lisp 1 (March 1960) was written, the primitive operations defined were car, cdr, cons, and, or, cond, etc. The arithmetic operations were not primitives at that time, so the programmers chose their own names.
At least Lisp 1.5 (early 60s) had both.
But this Lisp from 1970 had PLUS and MINUS but no + nor -.
If you consider Scheme (1975) to be a Lisp, then it is a specimen having both + and &+ (the latter is an optimisation for two arguments only).
And Common Lisp (1984) has + but not plus as you have noted.
So I posit that we gradually settled on +-style symbols starting in the 70s, and the situation was a state of flux before then, for the reason that arithmetic operations were not even primitive operations to begin with.
answered 2 days ago
WilsonWilson
12.2k557139
2
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
2 days ago
11
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
2 days ago
2
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
2 days ago
@another-dave yes, but that could have beenPLUSorADDorQUXHJFNL, anything you like.
– Wilson
yesterday
1
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
yesterday
add a comment |
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Lisp is not a single language, but a whole ecosystem of different languages. Moreover, there's no standard covering all Lisps, like with C or Fortran, so for this reason, + and plus are equally "valid".
When Lisp 1 (March 1960) was written, the primitive operations defined were car, cdr, cons, and, or, cond, etc. The arithmetic operations were not primitives at that time, so the programmers chose their own names.
At least Lisp 1.5 (early 60s) had both.
But this Lisp from 1970 had PLUS and MINUS but no + nor -.
If you consider Scheme (1975) to be a Lisp, then it is a specimen having both + and &+ (the latter is an optimisation for two arguments only).
And Common Lisp (1984) has + but not plus as you have noted.
So I posit that we gradually settled on +-style symbols starting in the 70s, and the situation was a state of flux before then, for the reason that arithmetic operations were not even primitive operations to begin with.
answered 2 days ago
WilsonWilson
12.2k557139
2
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
2 days ago
11
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
2 days ago
2
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
2 days ago
@another-dave yes, but that could have beenPLUSorADDorQUXHJFNL, anything you like.
– Wilson
yesterday
1
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
yesterday
add a comment |
Lisp is not a single language, but a whole ecosystem of different languages. Moreover, there's no standard covering all Lisps, like with C or Fortran, so for this reason, + and plus are equally "valid".
When Lisp 1 (March 1960) was written, the primitive operations defined were car, cdr, cons, and, or, cond, etc. The arithmetic operations were not primitives at that time, so the programmers chose their own names.
At least Lisp 1.5 (early 60s) had both.
But this Lisp from 1970 had PLUS and MINUS but no + nor -.
If you consider Scheme (1975) to be a Lisp, then it is a specimen having both + and &+ (the latter is an optimisation for two arguments only).
And Common Lisp (1984) has + but not plus as you have noted.
So I posit that we gradually settled on +-style symbols starting in the 70s, and the situation was a state of flux before then, for the reason that arithmetic operations were not even primitive operations to begin with.
answered 2 days ago
WilsonWilson
12.2k557139
2
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
2 days ago
11
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
2 days ago
2
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
2 days ago
@another-dave yes, but that could have beenPLUSorADDorQUXHJFNL, anything you like.
– Wilson
yesterday
1
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
yesterday
add a comment |
Lisp is not a single language, but a whole ecosystem of different languages. Moreover, there's no standard covering all Lisps, like with C or Fortran, so for this reason, + and plus are equally "valid".
When Lisp 1 (March 1960) was written, the primitive operations defined were car, cdr, cons, and, or, cond, etc. The arithmetic operations were not primitives at that time, so the programmers chose their own names.
At least Lisp 1.5 (early 60s) had both.
But this Lisp from 1970 had PLUS and MINUS but no + nor -.
If you consider Scheme (1975) to be a Lisp, then it is a specimen having both + and &+ (the latter is an optimisation for two arguments only).
And Common Lisp (1984) has + but not plus as you have noted.
So I posit that we gradually settled on +-style symbols starting in the 70s, and the situation was a state of flux before then, for the reason that arithmetic operations were not even primitive operations to begin with.
answered 2 days ago
WilsonWilson
12.2k557139
Lisp is not a single language, but a whole ecosystem of different languages. Moreover, there's no standard covering all Lisps, like with C or Fortran, so for this reason, + and plus are equally "valid".
When Lisp 1 (March 1960) was written, the primitive operations defined were car, cdr, cons, and, or, cond, etc. The arithmetic operations were not primitives at that time, so the programmers chose their own names.
At least Lisp 1.5 (early 60s) had both.
But this Lisp from 1970 had PLUS and MINUS but no + nor -.
If you consider Scheme (1975) to be a Lisp, then it is a specimen having both + and &+ (the latter is an optimisation for two arguments only).
And Common Lisp (1984) has + but not plus as you have noted.
So I posit that we gradually settled on +-style symbols starting in the 70s, and the situation was a state of flux before then, for the reason that arithmetic operations were not even primitive operations to begin with.
answered 2 days ago
WilsonWilson
12.2k557139
edited 2 days ago
answered 2 days ago
WilsonWilson
12.2k557139
answered 2 days ago
WilsonWilson
12.2k557139
answered 2 days ago
WilsonWilson
12.2k557139
12.2k557139
2
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
2 days ago
11
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
2 days ago
2
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
2 days ago
@another-dave yes, but that could have beenPLUSorADDorQUXHJFNL, anything you like.
– Wilson
yesterday
1
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
yesterday
add a comment |
2
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
2 days ago
11
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
2 days ago
2
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
2 days ago
@another-dave yes, but that could have beenPLUSorADDorQUXHJFNL, anything you like.
– Wilson
yesterday
1
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
yesterday
2
2
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
2 days ago
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
2 days ago
11
11
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
2 days ago
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
2 days ago
2
2
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
2 days ago
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
2 days ago
@another-dave yes, but that could have been
PLUS or ADD or QUXHJFNL, anything you like.– Wilson
yesterday
@another-dave yes, but that could have been
PLUS or ADD or QUXHJFNL, anything you like.– Wilson
yesterday
1
1
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
yesterday
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
yesterday
add a comment |
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1
Are you able to give more information about the dialect of Lisp you were just reading about?
– Wilson
2 days ago
@Wilson It doesn't seem to say what the dialect is specifically called, or if it does, I missed it. The Byte issue can be downloaded in PDF if you want to take a look yourself.
– rwallace
yesterday