Early Programming Books

Rich Alderson cc at alderson.users.panix.com
Mon Jun 21 16:47:35 CDT 2021


> Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2021 22:19:02 -0600
> From: ben via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org>

> LISP still can't be compiled.

May I respectfully suggest that you don't know WTF you're talking about?

LISP compilers have existed for decades.  One of the *early* MIT AI Lab papers
by Guy Steele is a comparison of the compiler for MACLISP (the Project MAC
dialect of Lisp, nothing to do with Apple computers) with the then current
FORTRAN compiler for the PDP-10 (called "F40"), in which the LISP compiler
generated better code than the FORTRAN compiler.

Things have not degenerated since then.

                                                                Rich


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