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John McCarthy, Discoverer of Lisp, Has Passed Away

The first of a few submitters, szo sent in an early report that John McCarthy passed early yesterday. Paul Graham (among others) confirmed: the news was true. And so, shortly after a fellow founder of countless language descendants, goes the founder of the Lisp tree at the age of 84.

6 of 354 comments (clear)

  1. Thanks by V!NCENT · · Score: 5, Informative

    (print "World says goodbye")

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    Here be signatures
  2. god wrote in Lisp code. by Inf0phreak · · Score: 2, Informative

    Obligatory xkcd link.

    And of course "Eternal Flame".

    Yes, the capitalisation of my comment's subject is deliberate.

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    ________
    Entranced by anime since late summer 2001 and loving it ^_^
  3. Re:Lisp is a fascinating language with honored his by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Informative

    Lisp is a fascinating language with honored history in AI, but let me ask you this: is it used now in some important applications?

    Emacs not important for you? Except for a small C core, everything is written in Lisp.

  4. Re:Where did he find it? by Jonner · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, actually, McCarthy did discover Lisp, at least according to Paul Graham.