Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

John McCarthy, Discoverer of Lisp, Has Passed Away

Posted by Unknown on from the lisp-proven-not-to-be-key-of-eternal-life dept.

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")

    --
    Here be signatures
  2. At first I just typed: :( :( :( by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    .. but then I realized I was missing something.)))

  3. Re:I hear that the greats die in threes by Nerdfest · · Score: 5, Funny

    The universe must be kept in balance. Ritchie and McCarthy were to offset Gaddafi and Jobs.

  4. Re:Discoverer or Lisp? by sapphire+wyvern · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually, the natives of Lisp already knew all about it. McCarthy was just the first person to show up with a flag, guns, germs & steel to claim Lisp for his homeland's empire.

    So you're quite right... discoverer is a very patriarchal, hegemonic colonialist way of describing McCarthy. /leftist historian mode :P

  5. Re:Discoverer or Lisp? by vlm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think you mean creator or inventor. It's not like the Lisp programming language was just sat out in the wilds of Chile under a rock waiting to be found by an archaeologist.

    He was an old time computer scientist, publications with titles like "A basis for a mathematical theory of computation". Hard core math.

    Philosophically, you don't "create" or "invent" math you discover it. Logical concepts exist independent of who wrote a paper about them first. Take two 256 bit random prime numbers, multiply them, and you have not "created" or "invented" the result but merely discovered it, or rephrased discovered its two factors.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  6. Ok, that's it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I finally decided to buy an iPad and Steve Jobs dies.
    I started a new project using C and Dennis Ritchie kicks the bucket.
    Then I started Stanford's AI Course and now John McCarthy is pining for the fjords.

    That's it. It's definitive. I'm a God of Death, so I shall use my recently discovered powers for the good of humanity. I'm going out to buy an Oracle DB and learn how to use it. See you on Larry Ellison's funeral next week.

    PS: Also, I suspect I'm the God of Rain too, since every time I wash my car it rains the next day.