From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/31117 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Jaap-Henk Hoepman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: Python Emacs (was Re: The .. rule) Date: 20 May 2000 22:35:22 +0200 Organization: University of Twente, Department of Computer Science Sender: owner-ding@hpc.uh.edu Message-ID: References: <00May12.111709edt.115683@gateway.intersys.com> <200005121547.RAA12153@marcy.cs.uni-dortmund.de> <200005172027.WAA16517@marcy.cs.uni-dortmund.de> <00May17.163721edt.115620@gateway.intersys.com> <00May19.104238edt.116445@gateway.intersys.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: coloc-standby.netfonds.no Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1035167561 12187 80.91.224.250 (21 Oct 2002 02:32:41 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 02:32:41 +0000 (UTC) Cc: "(ding)" Return-Path: Original-Received: from bart.math.uh.edu (bart.math.uh.edu [129.7.128.48]) by mailhost.sclp.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id B29DBD051F for ; Sat, 20 May 2000 16:34:32 -0400 (EDT) Original-Received: from sina.hpc.uh.edu (lists@Sina.HPC.UH.EDU [129.7.3.5]) by bart.math.uh.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id PAB30038; Sat, 20 May 2000 15:34:17 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: by sina.hpc.uh.edu (TLB v0.09a (1.20 tibbs 1996/10/09 22:03:07)); Sat, 20 May 2000 15:32:18 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: from mailhost.sclp.com (postfix@sclp3.sclp.com [204.252.123.139]) by sina.hpc.uh.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id PAA24657 for ; Sat, 20 May 2000 15:32:07 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: from utip202.cs.utwente.nl (ut198150.inbel.utwente.nl [130.89.198.150]) by mailhost.sclp.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 917EBD051F for ; Sat, 20 May 2000 16:32:27 -0400 (EDT) Original-Received: (from hoepman@localhost) by utip202.cs.utwente.nl (8.9.3/8.9.3) id WAA01435; Sat, 20 May 2000 22:35:22 +0200 X-Authentication-Warning: utip202.cs.utwente.nl: hoepman set sender to hoepman@cs.utwente.nl using -f Original-To: Stainless Steel Rat In-Reply-To: Stainless Steel Rat's message of "Fri, 19 May 2000 10:42:00 -0400" X-Face: #U;T;~,y.iVz7!wB(gVzSj:j}x-tZr\v-PQU}''7h^>jaAM'vw1KA83N5/gN~kcktG%,>Q>""S?Fg`&U80!Vg=)El,s/W)W^ Original-Lines: 41 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0802 (Gnus v5.8.2) XEmacs/21.1 (Biscayne) Precedence: list X-Majordomo: 1.94.jlt7 Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:31117 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:31117 On Fri, 19 May 2000 10:42:00 -0400 Stainless Steel Rat writes: > * Jaap-Henk Hoepman on Thu, 18 May 2000 > | Actually, C is a macro assembler which makes C++ ... an object oriented > | macro assembler:-) > > Very good. Paste a star on your forehead. :) > I feel radiant... :-) > | My problem with LISP is that it is a functional programming language used > | imperatively, which, at least to me, makes any reasonably complex lisp > | function very hard to read... > > The idea is that you recursively break a task up into successively smaller > tasks, then you write functions to implement these little tasks. Getting > back to the natural language analogy, each of these simple, "microtask" > functions is like a word. Words are joined to form phrases, which are > joined to form sentences, which are joined to form paragraphs, etc. I know the basic idea of functional programming, thank you. I also know it's good for certain programming tasks, and bad for others, and is actually not used all that often... LISP is a very bad functional programming language, because it allows you to use it imperatively: first do this, change the program state, then do that, etc.... and the syntax is really horrible. I have managed, over the years, to write simple LISP code for emacs-related stuff. There have been many times I would have liked to do something more complex, but was stopped by the `obnoxiousness' of LISP... Jaap-Henk -- Jaap-Henk Hoepman | Come sail your ships around me Dept. of Computer Science | And burn these bridges down University of Twente | Nick Cave - "Ship Song" Email: hoepman@cs.utwente.nl === WWW: www.cs.utwente.nl/~hoepman Phone: +31 53 4893795 === Secr: +31 53 4893770 === Fax: +31 53 4894590 PGP ID: 0xF52E26DD Fingerprint: 1AED DDEB C7F1 DBB3 0556 4732 4217 ABEF