4 ms·

Sorry to be pedantic, but in what way is 'On Lisp' a primary source? Especially compared to a Smalltalk manual.

• brudgers 11y ago
  On Lisp is: 1. Oft cited. 2. Minimally citing. 3. Primarily comprised of original material. 4. Written by an academic. I don't think that there is only one way of being a primary source. This is pretty common: for example, all the works of Aristotle are believed to be his student's notes, not his original words. Don't get me wrong, it is worth reading McCarthy's original paper and the Lisp 1.5 manual as well as On Lisp. The bandpass filter should be set to a broad spectrum. Computing is so young that we don't know what will constitute it's canon in 100 years: Today, C. S. Pierce's pragmaticism is philosophical, William James' is considered scientific psychology via historic interpretation. Computing hasn't yet gone through a thorough rewriting as described by Kuhn in Structure of Scientific Revolution. But the interwebs are perhaps the paradigm shift that could cause one.