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Lisp: "All code is data" That's not the question. "All data is code" is not the same statement. In a different context: "All apples are fruit" may be true but

Lisp: "All code is data" That's not the question. "All data is code" is not the same statement. In a different context: "All apples are fruit" may be true but that doesn't imply "all fruit are apples"

TeMPOraL 13y ago
Lisp programmers think "data is code and code is data, both are the same thing and they're interchangeable". As it happens to actually be. I point to GEB [0] for more detailed discussion of this, but let me give you a few examples which point out that the distinction between code and data is mostly meaningless. - Ant build descriptions that look suprisingly like executable Lisp code if you replace "<tag> ... </tag>" with "(tag ...)". - Musical notation which is obviously code for humans playing instruments (it even has loops, I think, AFAIR from my music lessons; don't know about conditionals; if it has them, maybe it's Turing-complete? (ETA it would seem it is[3])). - Windows Metafile format for bitmap and vector graphics which is basically a serialized list of WinAPI calls [1]. - "fa;sldjfsaldf" - the "not code, just data" example from [2] that happens to be "a Teco program that creates a new buffer, copies the old buffer and the time of day into it, searches and then selectively deletes". Oh, and it's also "a brainfuck program that does nothing, and a vi program to jump to the second "a" forwards and replace it with the string "ldjfsaldf"". [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Metafile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Metafile [2] - http://www.c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?DataAndCodeAreNotTheSameThing http://www.c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?DataAndCodeAreNotTheSameThing [3] - http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/136085/is-musical-notation-turing-complete http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/136085/is-mus...
- dragonwriter 13y ago
  > Musical notation which is obviously code for humans playing instruments (it even has loops, I think, AFAIR from my music lessons; don't know about conditionals; if it has them, maybe it's Turing-complete?). The are conditionals in standard music notation, at least ones that involve "executing different code" based on the value of a loop counter.

TeMPOraL 13y ago

Lisp programmers think "data is code and code is data, both are the same thing and they're interchangeable". As it happens to actually be. I point to GEB [0] for more detailed discussion of this, but let me give you a few examples which point out that the distinction between code and data is mostly meaningless. - Ant build descriptions that look suprisingly like executable Lisp code if you replace "<tag> ... </tag>" with "(tag ...)". - Musical notation which is obviously code for humans playing instruments (it even has loops, I think, AFAIR from my music lessons; don't know about conditionals; if it has them, maybe it's Turing-complete? (ETA it would seem it is[3])). - Windows Metafile format for bitmap and vector graphics which is basically a serialized list of WinAPI calls [1]. - "fa;sldjfsaldf" - the "not code, just data" example from [2] that happens to be "a Teco program that creates a new buffer, copies the old buffer and the time of day into it, searches and then selectively deletes". Oh, and it's also "a brainfuck program that does nothing, and a vi program to jump to the second "a" forwards and replace it with the string "ldjfsaldf"". [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach [1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Metafile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Metafile [2] - http://www.c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?DataAndCodeAreNotTheSameThing http://www.c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?DataAndCodeAreNotTheSameThing [3] - http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/136085/is-musical-notation-turing-complete http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/136085/is-mus...

dragonwriter 13y ago
> Musical notation which is obviously code for humans playing instruments (it even has loops, I think, AFAIR from my music lessons; don't know about conditionals; if it has them, maybe it's Turing-complete?). The are conditionals in standard music notation, at least ones that involve "executing different code" based on the value of a loop counter.