3 ms·
> An informal group evolved the language through revisions known as RnRS (a mathematical pun with a reference to Algol hidden in it), In case anyone else is wo
by contravariant 3y ago
> An informal group evolved the language through revisions known as RnRS (a mathematical pun with a reference to Algol hidden in it),
In case anyone else is wondering what the pun was in the name R^nRS. I didn't manage to find anything on google (may have used the wrong keywords), but GPT powered phind.com does manage to find an answer:
> The pun in RnRS, in reference to Algol, is a play on words involving the names of the two programming languages, Scheme and Algol. RnRS stands for "Revised^n Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme", where n is the version number of the report.
> The pun is a reference to the Algol programming language, which stands for "Algorithmic Language". The naming of Scheme's standards as RnRS is a nod to the "Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Algol 60", which was the standard defining the Algol 60 programming language.
> The hidden pun is in the "Revised^n" part of RnRS. In mathematics, "^" is an operator that denotes exponentiation. So "Revised^n" could be interpreted as "Revised Revised ... Revised", with the word "Revised" repeated n times. This is a playful way of indicating that the language Scheme has been revised multiple times, similar to how Algol was revised to create Algol 60
I couldn't find any direct quote linking the two so I though it was interesting that it still managed to find the link. All I did was paste the quote into the search engine and ask "What's the pun?".
- Filligree 3y agoWhat you're describing isn't a pun. So I'm still in the dark.
- contravariant 3y agoWell, that's on the author for claiming it is a pun, personally I'm happy about the explanation that: - R^nRS is short for Revised^n Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme - Algol60 was defined in a document called Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 60 - Revised^n is mathematical notation for Revised Revised ... Revised n-times. The prose is a bit iffy, but I'm just happy it managed to find the link between RnRS and Algol 60. It's something I didn't manage to find with just google.
- Jtsummers 3y agohttps://wiki.c2.com/?RevisedReportOnAlgorithmicLanguageScheme https://wiki.c2.com/?RevisedReportOnAlgorithmicLanguageSchem... > The title is surely a reference to the AlgolSixty report ("Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Algol 60") First page of Google results for "rnrs scheme meaning". No quotes, just those three terms. Also the Algol connection can be found in R3RS: > Dedicated to the Memory of ALGOL 60 -- https://standards.scheme.org/official/r3rs.pdf https://standards.scheme.org/official/r3rs.pdf
- spdegabrielle 3y agoI’m disinclined to treat CHATGPT as a source of information without a reference to the source of that explanation.
- contravariant 3y agoIt listed sources for all statements, but not for the link between them which it either got from an unlisted source or is something it came up with on its own.
- stonemetal12 3y agoWouldn't Version 1 just be RS. Making R^nRS Version n+1?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]