I'm considering starting a student group at my university for Lisp
hackers. There's an amusing phrase that I found in the Jargon File:
"Knights of Lambda Calculus". I'm thinking of using this for the name
of the organization. However, since there isn't really any organized
Lisp community at my school (which is exactly what I'm trying to
remedy), I've never heard the term in use so I'm not sure of its
connotations. Is it considered purely silly (as I'm hoping), or would
those who are more deserving of the title than I regard my use of it as
presumptuous?
······@franke.name wrote:
> I'm considering starting a student group at my university for Lisp
> hackers. There's an amusing phrase that I found in the Jargon File:
> "Knights of Lambda Calculus". I'm thinking of using this for the name
> of the organization. However, since there isn't really any organized
> Lisp community at my school (which is exactly what I'm trying to
> remedy), I've never heard the term in use so I'm not sure of its
> connotations. Is it considered purely silly (as I'm hoping), or would
> those who are more deserving of the title than I regard my use of it as
> presumptuous?
Knights of the Lambda Calculus eh? If it were left to you, who would
you think is most deserving of it? :-D
Lisp probably is the best programming language ..... but still, it is
just a programming language....... I atleast haven't seen any
cult(group) that forbade the use of it's name.elsewhere ....
······@franke.name wrote:
> I'm considering starting a student group at my university for Lisp
> hackers.
<snip>
And yeah, good luck with your efforts!! I bet it will be fun and it
will do a lot of good if you can help some people realize that Java and
C# don't exactly represent the cutting edge of programming language
technology.
-- Aravindh
On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 04:57:39 +0100, <······@franke.name> wrote:
> I'm considering starting a student group at my university for Lisp
> hackers. There's an amusing phrase that I found in the Jargon File:
> "Knights of Lambda Calculus". I'm thinking of using this for the name
> of the organization. However, since there isn't really any organized
> Lisp community at my school (which is exactly what I'm trying to
> remedy), I've never heard the term in use so I'm not sure of its
> connotations. Is it considered purely silly (as I'm hoping), or would
> those who are more deserving of the title than I regard my use of it as
> presumptuous?
>
'Knights of Lambda Calulus', (abbrev KLC - kill C) eh :)
Clever!
Well I's better than 'Union of Lispers' which would only
attract people with speach inpediments..
Lisp has many 'Kings' always competing for 'domination'.
Thus there is rearly a consensus on these things.
I'd say, go for it, but that is just my personal opinion.
--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/
"John Thingstad" <··············@chello.no> writes:
>
> On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 04:57:39 +0100, <······@franke.name> wrote:
>
> > I'm considering starting a student group at my university for Lisp
> > hackers. There's an amusing phrase that I found in the Jargon File:
> > "Knights of Lambda Calculus". I'm thinking of using this for the name
> > of the organization. However, since there isn't really any organized
> > Lisp community at my school (which is exactly what I'm trying to
> > remedy), I've never heard the term in use so I'm not sure of its
> > connotations. Is it considered purely silly (as I'm hoping), or would
> > those who are more deserving of the title than I regard my use of it as
> > presumptuous?
> >
>
> 'Knights of Lambda Calulus', (abbrev KLC - kill C) eh :)
> Clever!
Well, I recall getting one of the "Knights of the Lambda Calculus"
buttons that Gerry Sussman and Hal Abelson were giving out in their
SICP class a while back. I still have it on a bookshelf at home.
It had a recursive shield design with a lambda on it.
--
Thomas A. Russ, USC/Information Sciences Institute
······@franke.name writes:
> hackers. There's an amusing phrase that I found in the Jargon File:
> "Knights of Lambda Calculus". I'm thinking of using this for the name
> of the organization.
good name :-)
> connotations. Is it considered purely silly (as I'm hoping), or would
> those who are more deserving of the title than I regard my use of it as
> presumptuous?
No, I couldn't imagine who that would be!
"We are the Knights of Lambda Calculus. You must return here with a
lexical closure... or else you will never pass through this code alive!"
--
(espen)
>There's an amusing phrase that I found in the Jargon File:
>"Knights of Lambda Calculus" ...I've never heard the term in use so I'm not sure of its
> connotations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_programming_language <--check right
hand colmn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Lambda_Calculus
http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/~boogles/Illuminati/
also, these might help ;-)
http://www.google.com/help/basics.html
http://www.google.com/help/operators.html
>I'm considering starting a student group at my university for Lisp
>hackers.
Good luck with that. Honestly I would try the math, physics, and
english depts.
-nick
<········@gmail.com> wrote:
>> There's an amusing phrase that I found in the Jargon File:
>> "Knights of Lambda Calculus" ...I've never heard the term in use so
>> I'm not sure of its connotations.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_programming_language <--check right
> hand colmn
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Lambda_Calculus
> http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/~boogles/Illuminati/
I was just browsing through "The Art of the MetaObject Protocol" and
discovered that it has an index entry for "Knights of the Lambda
Calculus". It's the only entry for the letter K, by the way.
When I followed the link (p. 313), I found the following line:
(format t "~%Closette is a Knights of the Lambda Calculus production.")
To the OP: for me the term "Knights of the Lambda Calculus" has
connotations of famous Lispers like Kiczales, des Rivi�res, Bobrow,
Steele, Sussman, etcetera. I never met any of these people in real
life so I'm not sure if that's the 'right' connotation. Still, I
think it would be better to choose another name for your student
group.
"Arthur Lemmens" <········@xs4all.nl> writes:
> <········@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> There's an amusing phrase that I found in the Jargon File:
>>> "Knights of Lambda Calculus" ...I've never heard the term in use so
>>> I'm not sure of its connotations.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_programming_language <--check right
>> hand colmn
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Lambda_Calculus
>> http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/~boogles/Illuminati/
>
> I was just browsing through "The Art of the MetaObject Protocol" and
> discovered that it has an index entry for "Knights of the Lambda
> Calculus". It's the only entry for the letter K, by the way.
>
> When I followed the link (p. 313), I found the following line:
>
> (format t "~%Closette is a Knights of the Lambda Calculus production.")
>
>
> To the OP: for me the term "Knights of the Lambda Calculus" has
> connotations of famous Lispers like Kiczales, des Rivi�res, Bobrow,
> Steele, Sussman, etcetera. I never met any of these people in real
> life so I'm not sure if that's the 'right' connotation. Still, I
> think it would be better to choose another name for your student
> group.
Jeesh, can't students have any fun any more. From the Jargon File:
Knights of the Lambda Calculus: n.
A semi-mythical organization of wizardly LISP and Scheme hackers. The
name refers to a mathematical formalism invented by Alonzo Church,
with which LISP is intimately connected. There is no enrollment list
and the criteria for induction are unclear, but one well-known LISPer
has been known to give out buttons and, in general, the members know
who they are....
While it might be a bit presumptuous to claim to be a Knight of the
Lambda Calculus given the level of wizardry of the original members,
it also seems like an appropriate homage to the original Knights and
all they stood for, for a group of college students want to want to
revive the sprit of the now-mythical organization.
-Peter
--
Peter Seibel * ·····@gigamonkeys.com
Gigamonkeys Consulting * http://www.gigamonkeys.com/
Practical Common Lisp * http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/
Peter Seibel wrote:
> "Arthur Lemmens" <········@xs4all.nl> writes:
> > To the OP: for me the term "Knights of the Lambda Calculus" has
> > connotations of famous Lispers like Kiczales, des Rivières, Bobrow,
> > Steele, Sussman, etcetera. I never met any of these people in real
> > life so I'm not sure if that's the 'right' connotation. Still, I
> > think it would be better to choose another name for your student
> > group.
>
> While it might be a bit presumptuous to claim to be a Knight of the
> Lambda Calculus given the level of wizardry of the original members,
> it also seems like an appropriate homage to the original Knights and
> all they stood for, for a group of college students want to want to
> revive the sprit of the now-mythical organization.
Yeah, why not? Right now, after all the money and advantages are gone,
most of those experienced Knights are probably toiling away working on
things like extensions and tools for Java. Just like the rest of CS.
If anything, be better than those knights.
That said though... "lambda" reminds me of the movie "Revenge of the
Nerds." And gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender groups. Which I guess is
very openminded and you'll probably find very diverse people showing up
to the first meeting.
Tayssir
On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 22:04:10 +0100, Tayssir John Gabbour
<···········@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Peter Seibel wrote:
>> "Arthur Lemmens" <········@xs4all.nl> writes:
>> > To the OP: for me the term "Knights of the Lambda Calculus" has
>> > connotations of famous Lispers like Kiczales, des Rivi�res, Bobrow,
>> > Steele, Sussman, etcetera. I never met any of these people in real
>> > life so I'm not sure if that's the 'right' connotation. Still, I
>> > think it would be better to choose another name for your student
>> > group.
>>
>> While it might be a bit presumptuous to claim to be a Knight of the
>> Lambda Calculus given the level of wizardry of the original members,
>> it also seems like an appropriate homage to the original Knights and
>> all they stood for, for a group of college students want to want to
>> revive the sprit of the now-mythical organization.
>
> Yeah, why not? Right now, after all the money and advantages are gone,
> most of those experienced Knights are probably toiling away working on
> things like extensions and tools for Java. Just like the rest of CS.
>
> If anything, be better than those knights.
>
> That said though... "lambda" reminds me of the movie "Revenge of the
> Nerds." And gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender groups. Which I guess is
> very openminded and you'll probably find very diverse people showing up
> to the first meeting.
>
>
> Tayssir
>
I think the calculus bit will scare them off :)
--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/
Peter Seibel <·····@gigamonkeys.com> writes:
> Jeesh, can't students have any fun any more. From the Jargon File:
>
> [...]
> While it might be a bit presumptuous to claim to be a Knight of the
> Lambda Calculus given the level of wizardry of the original members,
> it also seems like an appropriate homage to the original Knights and
> all they stood for, for a group of college students want to want to
> revive the sprit of the now-mythical organization.
Squires of the Lambda Calculus?
Simon Alexander wrote:
> Peter Seibel <·····@gigamonkeys.com> writes:
> > Jeesh, can't students have any fun any more. From the Jargon File:
> >
> > [...]
>
> > While it might be a bit presumptuous to claim to be a Knight of the
> > Lambda Calculus given the level of wizardry of the original members,
> > it also seems like an appropriate homage to the original Knights and
> > all they stood for, for a group of college students want to want to
> > revive the sprit of the now-mythical organization.
>
>
> Squires of the Lambda Calculus?
Keep It Simple Stupid. Most people don't know who the KLCs are. Just
call it "Knights of the Lambda Calculus." If the group is named such,
then it's an opportunity to teach and preserve history. Plus, if
you're bolder in your aspirations, who knows who you might attract to
your group? Maybe a real Knight will show up to mentor you.
Cheers,
Brandon Van Every
Simon Alexander <··@spam.net> wrote:
> Peter Seibel <·····@gigamonkeys.com> writes:
>> Jeesh, can't students have any fun any more. From the Jargon File:
>>
>> [...]
>
>> While it might be a bit presumptuous to claim to be a Knight of the
>> Lambda Calculus given the level of wizardry of the original members,
>> it also seems like an appropriate homage to the original Knights and
>> all they stood for, for a group of college students want to want to
>> revive the sprit of the now-mythical organization.
>
>
> Squires of the Lambda Calculus?
Round Table of the Lambda Calculus?
Arthur Lemmens <········@xs4all.nl> wrote:
>Simon Alexander <··@spam.net> wrote:
>> Peter Seibel <·····@gigamonkeys.com> writes:
>>> ...it also seems like an appropriate homage to the original Knights and
>>> all they stood for, for a group of college students want to want to
>>> revive the sprit of the now-mythical organization.
>>
>> Squires of the Lambda Calculus?
>
>Round Table of the Lambda Calculus?
Recursions of the Lambda Calculus? [They could
call themselves "the Recursions" for short...]
-Rob
-----
Rob Warnock <····@rpw3.org>
627 26th Avenue <URL:http://rpw3.org/>
San Mateo, CA 94403 (650)572-2607
On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 19:38:30 +0000, Peter Seibel wrote:
> "Arthur Lemmens" <········@xs4all.nl> writes:
> [...]
>> To the OP: for me the term "Knights of the Lambda Calculus" has
>> connotations of famous Lispers like Kiczales, des Rivi�res, Bobrow,
>> Steele, Sussman, etcetera. I never met any of these people in real
>> life so I'm not sure if that's the 'right' connotation. Still, I
>> think it would be better to choose another name for your student
>> group.
>
> Jeesh, can't students have any fun any more. From the Jargon File:
>
> Knights of the Lambda Calculus: n.
>
> A semi-mythical organization of wizardly LISP and Scheme hackers. The
> name refers to a mathematical formalism invented by Alonzo Church,
> with which LISP is intimately connected. There is no enrollment list
> and the criteria for induction are unclear, but one well-known LISPer
> has been known to give out buttons and, in general, the members know
> who they are....
>
> While it might be a bit presumptuous to claim to be a Knight of the
> Lambda Calculus given the level of wizardry of the original members,
> it also seems like an appropriate homage to the original Knights and
> all they stood for, for a group of college students want to want to
> revive the sprit of the now-mythical organization.
Well, so they aren't knights _yet_, just learning to become a knight:
how about "The Knaves of the Knights of the Lambda Calculus" ?
Cheers Ralf Mattes
> -Peter
Call 'em Knights of the Lambda Calculus and the rest be damned!
--
Fred Gilham ······@csl.sri.com
linus doesnt have what they call a GUI which means that you cant use a
mouse and click on things you have to type in words in a different
language probably finnish I dont know but it wont work unless you
speak at least 10 different languages and one of those languages has
to be a slavic language and you have a phd in 10 different languages
and also can do math real real good - From geraldholmes.freeyellow.com
>I'm considering starting a student group at my university for Lisp
>hackers.
We started a "functional programming, beer, and pizza" group out of the
Reno linux users group. I put some posters up at the local uni's cs
department that said, verbatim:
Lisp, Haskell, Erlang, Dylan, Scheme
if you know what any of these words mean, drop us a line
·····@...
not a single response.
>Well, I recall getting one of the "Knights of the Lambda Calculus"
>buttons that Gerry Sussman and Hal Abelson were giving out in their
>SICP class a while back. I still have it on a bookshelf at home.
>It had a recursive shield design with a lambda on it.
ha! cool. I started watching lectures from that class online
http://swiss.csail.mit.edu/classes/6.001/abelson-sussman-lectures/
I've almost got all 30+ gigs of the mpgs downloaded. I'm thinking of
compressing them to .mov and putting them on a DVD with the textbook if
anyone wants a copy :-)
nick
[Apologies if this is a duplicate. Google cut me off in mid-sentence,
a weird error.]
········@gmail.com wrote:
> >I'm considering starting a student group at my university for Lisp
> >hackers.
>
> We started a "functional programming, beer, and pizza" group out of the
> Reno linux users group. I put some posters up at the local uni's cs
> department that said, verbatim:
>
> Lisp, Haskell, Erlang, Dylan, Scheme
>
> if you know what any of these words mean, drop us a line
> ·····@...
>
> not a single response.
Is this an excerpt from your post, or is this literally all you posted?
People are busy; messages have to be clear, compelling, and
informative to attract people. Here's what works for SeaFunc.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SeaFunc/ It has been sufficient to grow
us to the "8 people a meeting" stage, although it's becoming clear that
we'll have to do something further if we want to get larger than that.
Cheers,
Brandon Van Every
> > Lisp, Haskell, Erlang, Dylan, Scheme
> > if you know what any of these words mean, drop us a line
> > ·····@...
>Is this an excerpt from your post, or is this literally all you posted?
> People are busy; messages have to be clear, compelling, and
>informative to attract people.
Yeah, I probably should have qualified this comment. The post was
enigmatic for a reason: I wasn't looking to promulgate fp--just to fish
out any functional programmers/fanatics that might already be out
there. This is literally all I posted. In this instance I didn't think
picking up one or two potential converts from the java or c++ bin was
worth having people with bad taste hanging around at meetings and
trying to explain that python is as good as lisp every five minutes.
There are smart people everywhere--but most of them stick to what they
know
or whats forced down their throats. The desire for improvement and
beauty can't be taught... thus I guess I think there's a time for
prostelyzation and there's
a time to ignore advocacy and get some work done (maybe they'll realize
what the better side of technology is when lisp moves the world on
without them) ;-)
nick
Cruise Director wrote:
> Is this an excerpt from your post, or is this literally all you posted?
> People are busy; messages have to be clear, compelling, and
> informative to attract people. Here's what works for SeaFunc.
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SeaFunc/ It has been sufficient to grow
> us to the "8 people a meeting" stage, although it's becoming clear that
> we'll have to do something further if we want to get larger than that.
But that's 8 people total in the whole Seattle area, right?
I'd guess other cities, and other countries don't have that much luck.
At my old university, my co-undergrads all ended up hating Scheme, and
at my current one they don't even teach it...
--
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.