When did Lisp start using symbols for arithmetic? The Next CEO of Stack OverflowWhen did computers start being able to take both 115 and 230 volts?PC for DMV knowledge test - since when?When did CPUs start using page mode DRAM?When did smart terminals arrive?When did README files start showing up in software?When did Multics begin using '>' as a pathname separator?When did schools stop caring about form factor?When did MOS Technology upgrade to 5µm?Why was the 6809 so expensive?When did “Zen” in computer programming become a thing?
What does "Its cash flow is deeply negative" mean?
How does the mv command work with external drives?
Does it take more energy to get to Venus or to Mars?
Won the lottery - how do I keep the money?
What connection does MS Office have to Netscape Navigator?
Why is the US ranked as #45 in Press Freedom ratings, despite its extremely permissive free speech laws?
What was the first Unix version to run on a microcomputer?
How to transpose the 1st and -1th levels of arbitrarily nested array?
Different harmonic changes implied by a simple descending scale
What benefits would be gained by using human laborers instead of drones in deep sea mining?
Is micro rebar a better way to reinforce concrete than rebar?
MessageLevel in QGIS3
Which tube will fit a -(700 x 25c) wheel?
Is it my responsibility to learn a new technology in my own time my employer wants to implement?
"and that skill is always a class skill for you" - does "always" have any meaning in Pathfinder?
I believe this to be a fraud - hired, then asked to cash check and send cash as Bitcoin
Preparing Indesign booklet with .psd graphics for print
Why did we only see the N-1 starfighters in one film?
What happened in Rome, when the western empire "fell"?
How should I support this large drywall patch?
Received an invoice from my ex-employer billing me for training; how to handle?
What is ( CFMCC ) on ILS approach chart?
How to count occurrences of text in a file?
How do we know the LHC results are robust?
When did Lisp start using symbols for arithmetic?
The Next CEO of Stack OverflowWhen did computers start being able to take both 115 and 230 volts?PC for DMV knowledge test - since when?When did CPUs start using page mode DRAM?When did smart terminals arrive?When did README files start showing up in software?When did Multics begin using '>' as a pathname separator?When did schools stop caring about form factor?When did MOS Technology upgrade to 5µm?Why was the 6809 so expensive?When did “Zen” in computer programming become a thing?
Looking through the August 1979 issue of Byte magazine, it discusses a dialect of Lisp in which arithmetic operations are denoted by words like PLUS and TIMES.
Later dialects like Common Lisp and Scheme use the symbols common to other languages like + and *.
When did Lisp generally switch from one convention to the other?
history lisp
asked yesterday
rwallacerwallace
10.1k451149
add a comment |
Looking through the August 1979 issue of Byte magazine, it discusses a dialect of Lisp in which arithmetic operations are denoted by words like PLUS and TIMES.
Later dialects like Common Lisp and Scheme use the symbols common to other languages like + and *.
When did Lisp generally switch from one convention to the other?
history lisp
asked yesterday
rwallacerwallace
10.1k451149
1
Are you able to give more information about the dialect of Lisp you were just reading about?
– Wilson
yesterday
@Wilson It doesn't seem to say what the dialect is specifically called, or if it does, I missed it. The Byte issue can be downloaded in PDF if you want to take a look yourself.
– rwallace
17 hours ago
add a comment |
Looking through the August 1979 issue of Byte magazine, it discusses a dialect of Lisp in which arithmetic operations are denoted by words like PLUS and TIMES.
Later dialects like Common Lisp and Scheme use the symbols common to other languages like + and *.
When did Lisp generally switch from one convention to the other?
history lisp
asked yesterday
rwallacerwallace
10.1k451149
Looking through the August 1979 issue of Byte magazine, it discusses a dialect of Lisp in which arithmetic operations are denoted by words like PLUS and TIMES.
Later dialects like Common Lisp and Scheme use the symbols common to other languages like + and *.
When did Lisp generally switch from one convention to the other?
history lisp
history lisp
asked yesterday
rwallacerwallace
10.1k451149
asked yesterday
rwallacerwallace
10.1k451149
asked yesterday
rwallacerwallace
10.1k451149
asked yesterday
rwallacerwallace
10.1k451149
asked yesterday
rwallacerwallace
10.1k451149
10.1k451149
1
Are you able to give more information about the dialect of Lisp you were just reading about?
– Wilson
yesterday
@Wilson It doesn't seem to say what the dialect is specifically called, or if it does, I missed it. The Byte issue can be downloaded in PDF if you want to take a look yourself.
– rwallace
17 hours ago
add a comment |
1
Are you able to give more information about the dialect of Lisp you were just reading about?
– Wilson
yesterday
@Wilson It doesn't seem to say what the dialect is specifically called, or if it does, I missed it. The Byte issue can be downloaded in PDF if you want to take a look yourself.
– rwallace
17 hours ago
1
1
Are you able to give more information about the dialect of Lisp you were just reading about?
– Wilson
yesterday
Are you able to give more information about the dialect of Lisp you were just reading about?
– Wilson
yesterday
@Wilson It doesn't seem to say what the dialect is specifically called, or if it does, I missed it. The Byte issue can be downloaded in PDF if you want to take a look yourself.
– rwallace
17 hours ago
@Wilson It doesn't seem to say what the dialect is specifically called, or if it does, I missed it. The Byte issue can be downloaded in PDF if you want to take a look yourself.
– rwallace
17 hours ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
Lisp is not a single language, but a whole ecosystem of different languages. Moreover, there's no standard covering all Lisps, like with C or Fortran, so for this reason, + and plus are equally "valid".
When Lisp 1 (March 1960) was written, the primitive operations defined were car, cdr, cons, and, or, cond, etc. The arithmetic operations were not primitives at that time, so the programmers chose their own names.
At least Lisp 1.5 (early 60s) had both.
But this Lisp from 1970 had PLUS and MINUS but no + nor -.
If you consider Scheme (1975) to be a Lisp, then it is a specimen having both + and &+ (the latter is an optimisation for two arguments only).
And Common Lisp (1984) has + but not plus as you have noted.
So I posit that we gradually settled on +-style symbols starting in the 70s, and the situation was a state of flux before then, for the reason that arithmetic operations were not even primitive operations to begin with.
answered yesterday
WilsonWilson
12.1k556139
2
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
yesterday
11
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
yesterday
2
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
yesterday
@another-dave yes, but that could have beenPLUSorADDorQUXHJFNL, anything you like.
– Wilson
13 hours ago
1
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
10 hours ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "648"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);
else
createEditor();
);
function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader:
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
,
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);
);
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fretrocomputing.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f9453%2fwhen-did-lisp-start-using-symbols-for-arithmetic%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
Lisp is not a single language, but a whole ecosystem of different languages. Moreover, there's no standard covering all Lisps, like with C or Fortran, so for this reason, + and plus are equally "valid".
When Lisp 1 (March 1960) was written, the primitive operations defined were car, cdr, cons, and, or, cond, etc. The arithmetic operations were not primitives at that time, so the programmers chose their own names.
At least Lisp 1.5 (early 60s) had both.
But this Lisp from 1970 had PLUS and MINUS but no + nor -.
If you consider Scheme (1975) to be a Lisp, then it is a specimen having both + and &+ (the latter is an optimisation for two arguments only).
And Common Lisp (1984) has + but not plus as you have noted.
So I posit that we gradually settled on +-style symbols starting in the 70s, and the situation was a state of flux before then, for the reason that arithmetic operations were not even primitive operations to begin with.
answered yesterday
WilsonWilson
12.1k556139
2
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
yesterday
11
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
yesterday
2
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
yesterday
@another-dave yes, but that could have beenPLUSorADDorQUXHJFNL, anything you like.
– Wilson
13 hours ago
1
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
10 hours ago
add a comment |
Lisp is not a single language, but a whole ecosystem of different languages. Moreover, there's no standard covering all Lisps, like with C or Fortran, so for this reason, + and plus are equally "valid".
When Lisp 1 (March 1960) was written, the primitive operations defined were car, cdr, cons, and, or, cond, etc. The arithmetic operations were not primitives at that time, so the programmers chose their own names.
At least Lisp 1.5 (early 60s) had both.
But this Lisp from 1970 had PLUS and MINUS but no + nor -.
If you consider Scheme (1975) to be a Lisp, then it is a specimen having both + and &+ (the latter is an optimisation for two arguments only).
And Common Lisp (1984) has + but not plus as you have noted.
So I posit that we gradually settled on +-style symbols starting in the 70s, and the situation was a state of flux before then, for the reason that arithmetic operations were not even primitive operations to begin with.
answered yesterday
WilsonWilson
12.1k556139
2
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
yesterday
11
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
yesterday
2
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
yesterday
@another-dave yes, but that could have beenPLUSorADDorQUXHJFNL, anything you like.
– Wilson
13 hours ago
1
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
10 hours ago
add a comment |
Lisp is not a single language, but a whole ecosystem of different languages. Moreover, there's no standard covering all Lisps, like with C or Fortran, so for this reason, + and plus are equally "valid".
When Lisp 1 (March 1960) was written, the primitive operations defined were car, cdr, cons, and, or, cond, etc. The arithmetic operations were not primitives at that time, so the programmers chose their own names.
At least Lisp 1.5 (early 60s) had both.
But this Lisp from 1970 had PLUS and MINUS but no + nor -.
If you consider Scheme (1975) to be a Lisp, then it is a specimen having both + and &+ (the latter is an optimisation for two arguments only).
And Common Lisp (1984) has + but not plus as you have noted.
So I posit that we gradually settled on +-style symbols starting in the 70s, and the situation was a state of flux before then, for the reason that arithmetic operations were not even primitive operations to begin with.
answered yesterday
WilsonWilson
12.1k556139
Lisp is not a single language, but a whole ecosystem of different languages. Moreover, there's no standard covering all Lisps, like with C or Fortran, so for this reason, + and plus are equally "valid".
When Lisp 1 (March 1960) was written, the primitive operations defined were car, cdr, cons, and, or, cond, etc. The arithmetic operations were not primitives at that time, so the programmers chose their own names.
At least Lisp 1.5 (early 60s) had both.
But this Lisp from 1970 had PLUS and MINUS but no + nor -.
If you consider Scheme (1975) to be a Lisp, then it is a specimen having both + and &+ (the latter is an optimisation for two arguments only).
And Common Lisp (1984) has + but not plus as you have noted.
So I posit that we gradually settled on +-style symbols starting in the 70s, and the situation was a state of flux before then, for the reason that arithmetic operations were not even primitive operations to begin with.
answered yesterday
WilsonWilson
12.1k556139
edited yesterday
answered yesterday
WilsonWilson
12.1k556139
answered yesterday
WilsonWilson
12.1k556139
answered yesterday
WilsonWilson
12.1k556139
12.1k556139
2
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
yesterday
11
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
yesterday
2
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
yesterday
@another-dave yes, but that could have beenPLUSorADDorQUXHJFNL, anything you like.
– Wilson
13 hours ago
1
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
10 hours ago
add a comment |
2
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
yesterday
11
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
yesterday
2
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
yesterday
@another-dave yes, but that could have beenPLUSorADDorQUXHJFNL, anything you like.
– Wilson
13 hours ago
1
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
10 hours ago
2
2
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
yesterday
Common Lisp does have a standard; in fact it was the first object-oriented language to get an ANSI standard.
– sds
yesterday
11
11
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
yesterday
@sds, That's right, but there's no standard that covers everything that I'd personally call Lisp.
– Wilson
yesterday
2
2
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
yesterday
The way I read the LISP 1.0 doc, the arithmetic functions have to have alphanumeric names, since they're atoms, and atoms have names that are alphanumeric.
– another-dave
yesterday
@another-dave yes, but that could have been
PLUS or ADD or QUXHJFNL, anything you like.– Wilson
13 hours ago
@another-dave yes, but that could have been
PLUS or ADD or QUXHJFNL, anything you like.– Wilson
13 hours ago
1
1
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
10 hours ago
Agree; but I meant "+ was not possible" rather than "PLUS is the only possibility".
– another-dave
10 hours ago
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Retrocomputing Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fretrocomputing.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f9453%2fwhen-did-lisp-start-using-symbols-for-arithmetic%23new-answer', 'question_page');
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function ()
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
);
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
1
Are you able to give more information about the dialect of Lisp you were just reading about?
– Wilson
yesterday
@Wilson It doesn't seem to say what the dialect is specifically called, or if it does, I missed it. The Byte issue can be downloaded in PDF if you want to take a look yourself.
– rwallace
17 hours ago