undefined | Better HN

story

0 pointserichocean13y ago0 comments

I've already read the Alan Kay article you mentioned (recently, in fact), and that's not what I took away from it.

I guess we'll agree to disagree, I don't think someone needs to use the phrase "first-order functional programming" when they give the very definition of it, which is what Wikipedia does: summarize Kay's argument.

I do agree the article itself was quite interesting, and certainly ahead of its time.

0 comments

gruseom13y ago

What's Kay's argument, then? And how does it relate to FP? I'm curious.

I was making a textual point about the Wikipedia article. Its use of the phrase "first-order functional programming" is hyperlinked to http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?aid=727.... It's not citing Alan Kay.

erichoceanOP13y ago

I guess I wasn't clear, sorry. What Alan Kay meant by the "spreadsheet value rule" and what the phrase "a limited form of first-order functional progamming" means are semantically equivalent; they are the same thing.

I have no idea if Alan Kay ever used the latter phrase, but it was easier to use that phrase here on HN than Alan Kay's made up phrase, which would have be difficult to understand without the content of the article explaining it.

1 more reply