From: Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org>
To: emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Arguing for a nilp function and where to put it
Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2023 01:44:17 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87a5zofs4u.fsf@dataswamp.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 87v8icssy1.fsf@gnu.org
Roland Winkler wrote:
>> As you know, but it's interesting to those who don't ...
>>
>> (info "(eintr) Strange Names")
>>
>> The name of the cons function is not unreasonable: it is
>> an abbreviation of the word "construct". The origins of
>> the names for car and cdr, on the other hand, are
>> esoteric: car is an acronym from the phrase "Contents of
>> the Address part of the Register"; and cdr (pronounced
>> "could-er") is an acronym from the phrase "Contents of
>> the Decrement part of the Register". These phrases refer
>> to specific pieces of hardware on the very early computer
>> on which the original Lisp was developed.
>>
>> Hm ... That was in 1958? What kind of machine was that?
>
> But (info "(eintr) Strange Names") goes on:
>
> Besides being obsolete, the phrases have been completely
> irrelevant for more than 25 years to anyone thinking
> about Lisp.
>
> When was this written? Maybe 25 years ago? Maybe the number
> should be updated.
But that way, in 25 years, it has to be updated again.
Damn!
--
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2023-04-03 23:44 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 13+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2023-04-01 5:37 Arguing for a nilp function and where to put it Pedro Andres Aranda Gutierrez
2023-04-01 6:01 ` tomas
2023-04-01 6:07 ` Michael Albinus
2023-04-01 6:10 ` Eli Zaretskii
2023-04-01 7:09 ` Pedro Andres Aranda Gutierrez
2023-04-02 21:28 ` Roland Winkler
2023-04-03 3:02 ` Richard Stallman
2023-04-03 3:34 ` Emanuel Berg
2023-04-03 12:46 ` Andreas Schwab
2023-04-03 18:48 ` Roland Winkler
2023-04-03 23:44 ` Emanuel Berg [this message]
2023-04-04 2:56 ` Richard Stallman
2023-04-05 7:24 ` Emanuel Berg
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