On Tue, 22 May 2007, Anton van Straaten <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Another forwarded message from J. A. "Biep" Durieux: > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: J. A. "Biep" Durieux <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> Sent: 21 May 2007 >> To: '[email protected]' >> Subject: WdW and the nature of Scheme (Was: A guideline for designing >> Scheme) > > [Tired and isolated.. :-)] > > It is good to see my WdW message stirring up some discussion, but > unfortunately the reactions seem to address the last line only - and > then ignore the word "final" there. > > The situation as I see it is a bit like the straddle in an Academic > hospital. This implies a quadrupartition, or rather a double > bipartition: > (1) Scheme, the scientific apothecary, consisting of two parts. > (1a) The Beds, the medicinal garden where carefully-chosen medicinal > plants are grown. > (1b) The Pharmacopoeia, describing tonics and cordials with a proven > wholesome effect, and how to produce them from the herbs from the Beds. > Per ailment there is at most one recipe, and its healing effect is > guaranteed. For many ailments a recipe is still lacking, though. > The apothecary is run strictly according to WdW modality principles. > > (2) The Drugstore, likewise consisting of two parts. > (2a) The Mudlands, an eerie and forbidding land where trees grow of > repulsive shape, whose unwholesome fruits possess dark powers. > (2b) The Grymoire, describing potions and concoctions that in general > tend to have a positive overall effect. Their ingredients come where > possible from the Beds, but the Drugstore owners don't hesitate to > harvest in the Mudlands when the Beds don't provide what they need. The > Grymoire contains recipes for many diseases that the Pharmacopoeia > doesn't treat, at times even several competing ones for the same > illness. > > Once in a while one or the other of two things may happen to The Beds. > [a] Scheme accepts some plant X from the Mudlands, either in its wild > form, or in the form of a cultivar. In that latter case, a recipe is > added to the Grymoire that describes how to obtain the original effect > in terms of the cultivar, and X is eradicated from the Mudlands. > [b] A new, more fundamental base of plants is found. In that case > recipes in terms of the new plants corresponding to any removed ones are > added to the Grymoire. > Comparable things may happen to the Pharmacopoeia. > > Now the hospital as a whole is quite useful, but there are more useful > hospitals. The apothecary is unique, however, and merging it with the > larger hospital would amount to a real loss. So by all means let the > hospital grow, but never by blurring the line between the apothecary and > the drugstore. R6RS could recognise the four quadrants. Let Scheme > remain the language that.. etc. > > J. A. "Biep" Durieux - [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Please reply here rather than to > the address I had this sent from. Yes. In the instant case of Scheme, the Dream^Wprogramming system, let 1a include a formally strictly correct, as we understand such things in the Official Academies, semantics. The semantics must include a formalization of Time and Space. As we know, sometimes, St. Erlang's Hospital does wonderful things in cases for which we have no prepared remedy. oo--JS. _______________________________________________ r6rs-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.r6rs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/r6rs-discuss
