Re: Emacs and/or Lisp on Lego Mindstorms?

[<tomas@tuxteam.de>]

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On Mon, Apr 09, 2018 at 11:02:09PM +0200, Emanuel Berg wrote:
> Marcin Borkowski wrote:
> 
> >> JavaScript "lisp-ish" btw?
> >
> > Why not?
> 
> Because JavaScript is a shoddy-construction
> web-programming scripting language with
> a C++ syntax?

Syntax, schmyntax.

Javascript is a Lisp soul damned to live in a strange body. It
shares all those things we love in Lisp, like

 - first-class functions.
 - untyped (or single-typed) lambda calculus
 - (near-) homoiconicity (JSON anyone?)
 - dynamic language.

And this is no coincidence. It's because it has deep roots
in Lisp. No other way could someone have put together this
language in 10 days [1] without being deeply rooted in Lisp

  "Like many other languages, JavaScript took its
   basic syntax from the C language, including
   curly braces, semicolons, and reserved
   words. It was to be a light, friendly version
   of C with simpler semantics and better dynamic
   memory characteristics.  Because a typical
   webpage's lifetime lasted from a few seconds
   to a few minutes, JavaScript could take a
   very simplified approach to concurrency and
   memory management" [1]

And this strange, twisted body is...

  "In 1995, Netscape Communications recruited
   Brendan Eich with the goal of embedding the
   Scheme programming language into its Netscape
   Navigator. Before he could get started,
   Netscape Communications collaborated with Sun
   Microsystems to include in Netscape Navigator
   Sun's more static programming language Java,
   in order to compete with Microsoft for user
   adoption of Web technologies and platforms.[9]
   Netscape Communications then decided that
   the scripting language they wanted to create
   would complement Java and should have a similar
   syntax, which excluded adopting other languages
   such as Perl, Python, TCL, or Scheme. To
   defend the idea of JavaScript against competing
   proposals, the company needed a prototype. Eich
   wrote one in 10 days, in May 1995" [2]

Java!

The only languages you can possibly prototype in ten
days are Forth, a Lisp and perhaps Tcl (which is "a
Lisp" turned inside out, actually).

Cheers

[1] https://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/co/2012/02/mco2012020007.pdf
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javascript#History

- -- tomás
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