Newsgroups: comp.lang.scheme
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From: jeff@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Subject: Re: scsh in scm and Scheme gui's
Message-ID: <DKq3qr.10A.0.macbeth@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK
References: <4bjskn$o6b@jive.cs.utexas.edu> <87loo1lnde.fsf@organon.serpentine.com> <1996Jan2.182220.11213@netlabs.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 19:35:15 GMT
Lines: 37

In article <1996Jan2.182220.11213@netlabs.com> lwall@netlabs.com (Larry Wall) writes:
>In article <87loo1lnde.fsf@organon.serpentine.com>,
>Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpentine.com> wrote:
>: Perl isn't going to escape outside of the areas where it already has
>: hegemony.  If you don't use Perl very frequently, you're not going to
>: remember from one use of it to the next what on earth any of the
>: myriad of notational shortcuts do, or even what they look like.  As
>: for Perl's evolution, recent additions to the language such as
>: references, garbage collection (don't forget, kids, you can't GC
>: circular structures in Perl!) and object orientation are sufficiently
>: crufty as to make strong men weep.  Perl's appeal is self-limiting,
>: much like that of chainsaw juggling.  Mind you, I'd hate to think of a
>: world without chainsaw juggling.
>
>English isn't going to escape outside of the areas where it already has
>hegemony.  If you don't use English very frequently, you're not going
>to remember from one use of it to the next what on earth any of the
>myriad of notational shortcuts do, or even what they look like.  As for
>English's evolution, recent additions to the language such as latinate
>words and the entire pronoun system (don't forget, kids, you can't make
>case distinctions on ordinary nouns in Engish) are sufficiently crufty
>as to make strong men weep.  English's appeal is self-limiting, much
>like that of chainsaw juggling.  Mind you, I'd hate to think of a world
>without chainsaw juggling.

Is the parallel text supposed to show something?  If so, what?

That Bryan O'Sullivan has posted an (formally) invalid argument?

That Bryan O'Sullivan has posted an (formally) invalid argument
that isn't helped by anything we know that he hasn't stated
explicitly (and that can be taken as additional premises or
inference steps)?

That some things true of Perl are false of English?

-- jd
