Subject: Re: macros vs HOFs (was: O'Caml) From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no> Date: 11 Sep 2002 00:19:44 +0000 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <3240692384671659@naggum.no> * Thomas F. Burdick | You do realize that type inferencing is *allowed* in Lisp, right? Seriously, do you think you are talking to an intelligent person who is interested in listening to anybody when that is the kind of problems he comes up with? The troll detector should go off pretty loudly with such moronic comments as you are trying to counter with facts and intelligent communication. Trolls are not after either. They are emotional beings who need emotional answers. The poor sap from the storngly-typed language camp needs /reassurance/ that his incompetence at programming does not hurt him. Give him a language without strong typing and he fears he will hurt himself, which he will because the incredible complexity of the type system that he needed the compiler to figure out for him has left him completely unable to think in types on his own, like a kid who always used a calculator will not be able to do simple arithmetic in his head. It is not that it is difficult -- it is merely that these people have never even had to do it manually, so they have no idea how simple it really is to those who know how to do it. -- Erik Naggum, Oslo, Norway Act from reason, and failure makes you rethink and study harder. Act from faith, and failure makes you blame someone and push harder.