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From: Tim Pierce <twpierce+usenet@mail.bsd.uchicago.edu>
Subject: Re: Why lisp failed in the marketplace
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References: <01bc13dc$cfaa2b20$0f02000a@gjchome.nis.newscorp.com> <330512CF.6458@acm.org> <330664CD.2AEA@cc.umanitoba.ca> <330b4d8a.7824414@news.wam.umd.edu>
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 23:06:30 GMT
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In article <330b4d8a.7824414@news.wam.umd.edu>,
Robert Rodgers <knave@acm.org> wrote:

>The difference between Lisp and most every infix language is far and
>away completely different from the sort of differences we see in human
>languages.  How many human languages are structured the way lisp is
>(you don't get *large* stacks of operands / operators, you get small
>ones, usually seperated into clauses).

Here are two ways of phrasing a computation in English.  Think
about which one sounds more `natural' or easy to follow.

``Add together the numbers 2, 5, and 7.  Multiply the result by
3.  Now subtract 6 from 11, and add that to the first result.''

``Two plus five plus seven, quantity times three, plus quantity
eleven minus six.''

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