[plt-scheme] A literary metaphor for Scheme

From: Prabhakar Ragde (plragde at uwaterloo.ca)
Date: Tue Nov 8 21:54:31 EST 2005

Geoffrey Knauth wrote:

> Emily Dickinson

The two I thought of initially, Samuel Beckett and Emily Dickinson, have 
now been mentioned. My literary mailing list suggested Harold Pinter, 
which has an amusing parallel in the significant pauses (garbage 
collection?). In private e-mail, I also had a suggestion for the Arabian 
Nights (which may have inspired the on-list mention of John Barth, 
notably the several-levels-of-quotation-deep story in "Chimera"); Dan 
Simons' Hyperion, of which I am not a fan, though it did bring to my 
mind the more recent Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, which has a nice 
nested-application structure; and Don Quixote, which is a warmer 
recommendation than those who know only the cultural icon might think. 
As for Joyce (Ulysses being one of my desert-island books), I initially 
thought of the suggestion as inappropriate, but after another stab at 
Dybvig's syntax-case chapter, perhaps not. Thanks, all, for an 
interesting diversion.

In other book news, my copy of "The Reasoned Schemer" has arrived. I am 
frustrated that no mention of implementations is made. This is Kanren, 
right? Can I use this in DrScheme without much work? Is there any 
improvement over the binhexed config files visible in the plt-scheme 
archives for early August 2005, and if not, do these work for 299? 
Thanks. --PR


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