On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 11:08 PM, Thomas Lord <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, 2009-03-24 at 18:53 -0400, John Cowan wrote: >> Thomas Lord scripsit: >> >> > Perhaps if I write a Scheme with a thoroughly customizable >> > top-level environment I can support R6 but the thing >> > I'm so supporting ("R6") is not therefore a good >> > definition of Scheme. And perhaps I can similarly >> > support a Scheme in an R6 library - but even then, >> > R6 must be understood as something other than Scheme. >> >> The term "Scheme" has no meaning. (To be precise, it used to have no >> operational meaning; now it has no denotational meaning.) > > Where I come from, Scheme is a set of generally > agreeable axioms about a prospective class of > of programming environments. The axioms constructively > imply a denotational semantics but one that explicitly > includes domains for "unspecified" and such. Thus, > it defines a wide range of potential programming > environments that have some shared meaning, but that > can also diverge in interesting ways (e.g., by adding > additional axioms). Furthermore, the same axioms > are easily interpreted as partial models of a wide > variety of highly practical implementation techniques > for real-world programming environments (actual physical > instances). Furthermore, the basis of "general agreement" > about this set of axioms is its (a) minimalism - it has to > be a good basis set for computation in a very broad sense; > (b) practicality - it must, indeed, suggest in its structure > models for a wide range of great implementation techniques; > ideally the minimalism should correspond to simplicity of > implementation in readily perceived ways; (c) resemblance to > the broader family of "Lisp" languages generally, such > as in willingness to use models such as "cons pairs" and > "lambda" and such, even if diverging in wise ways from > earlier lisp traditions. > > And we liked it that way.
Unless "we" and "where I come from" is intended to imply something very narrow (ie, not including some large set of people associated with Scheme), then these are very strong claims about what a wide variety of opinionated people thought and intended and agreed upon in the past. Do you have any evidence for these claims? For example, can you provide any instances of other people propounding your "definition" of Scheme? -- sam th [email protected] _______________________________________________ r6rs-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.r6rs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/r6rs-discuss
