I've been dipping into past comp.lang.lisp messages and the consensus
seems to be that "applicative order y-combinators" are cool to know,
but have little practical value. I think so too. Have you guys seen
a practical use for y-combinators outside research?
Thank you very much. I am very much interested in hearing of your
experiences.
Rand
(Please don't reply to this email account because I'm running an
extended spam experiment. Thank you.)
On Feb 3, 6:59 am, ··········@eudoramail.com wrote:
> I've been dipping into past comp.lang.lisp messages and the consensus
> seems to be that "applicative order y-combinators" are cool to know,
> but have little practical value. I think so too. Have you guys seen
> a practical use for y-combinators outside research?
Yes. Tricking that hot librarian-looking woman with horn-rimmed
glasses into thinking your as brilliant as she is long enough to go
make out in the parking lot behind the cafe.
Seriously: No. The ability acheive recursion by labeling functions and
calling them by name makes having good y-combinator skills a bit
superflous, like being good atlatl skills (http://
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/
2006/01/0124_060124_atlatl_deer.html).
Nick
········@gmail.com wrote:
> On Feb 3, 6:59 am, ··········@eudoramail.com wrote:
>
>>I've been dipping into past comp.lang.lisp messages and the consensus
>>seems to be that "applicative order y-combinators" are cool to know,
>>but have little practical value. I think so too. Have you guys seen
>>a practical use for y-combinators outside research?
>
>
> Yes. Tricking that hot librarian-looking woman with horn-rimmed
> glasses into thinking your as brilliant as she is long enough to go
> make out in the parking lot behind the cafe.
>
> Seriously:
It almost happened. The charming beer wench at the Sunburnt Cow, (one
of) the post-LispNYC meets drinkeries, was delighted to overhear us
bellowing at each other over recursion vs iteration and such. Just when
things were looking promising I said something in defense of camelCase
and someone threw a beer on me, all hell broke loose, next thing I knew
I was in another dumpster.... but the principle is sound, I think.
kzo
--
Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and
I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.
-- Elwood P. Dowd
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.
-- Elwood's Mom
+ ··········@eudoramail.com:
| Have you guys seen
| a practical use for y-combinators outside research?
Research? And I thought it was a teaching tool.
Makes newbies' heads explode.
Very useful.
--
* Harald Hanche-Olsen <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- It is undesirable to believe a proposition
when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
-- Bertrand Russell
(message (Hello ···········@eudoramail.com)
(you :wrote :on '(3 Feb 2007 06:59:01 -0800))
(
r> I've been dipping into past comp.lang.lisp messages and the consensus
r> seems to be that "applicative order y-combinators" are cool to know,
r> but have little practical value. I think so too. Have you guys seen
r> a practical use for y-combinators outside research?
it's not exactly Y combinator, but looks scary enough too:
http://home.pipeline.com/~hbaker1/Iterator.html
)
(With-best-regards '(Alex Mizrahi) :aka 'killer_storm)
"People who lust for the Feel of keys on their fingertips (c) Inity")