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> Work on Common Lisp started in 1981 (wikipedia) Is it possible that, then, programmers were not familiar with dozens of other languages? I notice this about
by gavmor 4y ago
> Work on Common Lisp started in 1981 (wikipedia)
Is it possible that, then, programmers were not familiar with dozens of other languages? I notice this about the R language (1993), a derivation of S (1976): it is like a language from an alternate timeline in which syntax settled on other conventions but, at the time, the question wasn't closed.
- donio 4y agoAnd a lot of what ended up in CL has much older roots. I see logior and friends in the MIT Lisp Machine manual but not in the Maclisp one. Maclisp does have a version of boole though.
- gumby 4y ago> Is it possible that, then [1981], programmers were not familiar with dozens of other languages? In those days people knew more programming languages than is common today. In addition most of the people on the CL committee were academics or from academic instititutions — “industry” back then was more nerd oriented than business oriented as it more commonly is today.
- abecedarius 4y agoI think you're basically right that conventions were more open, though that's a different question from whether programmers knew a lot of languages. I started programming in 1981 and read a bunch of older sources in that decade, and saw IOR sometimes (I forget where).