One last thing: On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 10:16 PM, Meikel Brandmeyer <m...@kotka.de> wrote: > Hi, > > On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 09:50:12PM +0700, Per Vognsen wrote: >> Aha! I Googled for scan in seq-utils and didn't find anything. It >> would be nice if people stuck to standard terminology that has a >> continuous history going back to the early 60s. > > So we use names like car and cdr?
Perhaps if we were still programming with cons cells as fundamental building blocks. Cons cells are decidedly not linked list nodes but binary tree nodes that can be used to build right-leaning cons lists, left-leaning snoc lists, a-lists and anything in between. In that hypothetical case, yes, maybe car and cdr would not be so bad, everything considered. They are short, symmetric (3 characters, one middle character difference) and memorable once learned. At this point in time, rejecting them based on their half-forgotten origins in a computer architecture of yore is a little like rejecting a name on the basis of its Greek etymology. Every name is a more or less conventional sign. Convention isn't everything but neither is it nothing. For a sequence abstraction though, first and rest are infinitely better choices. Fortunately that is what Clojure uses them for. In Common Lisp, they are mere synonyms for car and cdr, though with admittedly useful connotations. -Per -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Clojure" group. To post to this group, send email to clojure@googlegroups.com Note that posts from new members are moderated - please be patient with your first post. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/clojure?hl=en To unsubscribe from this group, send email to clojure+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject.
