3 ms·
I could get over the parentheses but CAR and CDR instead of HEAD / TAIL or FIRST / REST annoy the crap out of me.
by mdpopescu 11y ago
I could get over the parentheses but CAR and CDR instead of HEAD / TAIL or FIRST / REST annoy the crap out of me.
- soapdog 11y agoCAR means Content of Address part of Register and CDR means Content of Decrement part of Register. They were tied to the 36-bits nature of the first LISP machines, with 15 bits to CAR and 15 bits to CDR (plus 2 bits for tags IIRC). So its not just naming keys in a structure, those had a very low level meaning related the the implementation of the CONS cell structure in hardware.
- lgas 11y agoI have no idea about the veracity of the claim but this page[0] contends that Lisp has had first/rest since 1959. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAR_and_CDR https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAR_and_CDR
- empthought 11y agoIt cited the claim with a source, so presumably you could check the veracity that way.