Re: Emacs history, and "Is Emacs difficult to learn?"

[Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se>]

Rustom Mody <rustompmody@gmail.com> writes:

> Heres Simon Peyton Jones on why spreadsheets are just FP in disguise
> http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~black/S3S/PeytonJones.ppt

OK, I take that back, at least until I've read that article. It
depends on how you use spreadsheets. Summing a column is not
programming, but yes, there is a second page, or sheet, to
spreadsheets.

> In the same way, R is stats+programming

What is R?

> sql is relational-algebra+programming

Yes. And as long as you don't do that fancy cursor iteration and
stuff, perhaps it is simply a computer implementation of
relational algebra, with some glue to make it stick together with
everything else, that is the computer (like the indexes, and
ordered sets - of course you don't need that in an abstract, math
model, that shouldn't be searched or otherwise optimized)?

> [And oldtimers will remember SetL]

Never heard of. What is that, set theory + programming, as in the
"set language"?

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