From: Eric S. Raymond Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2002 03:35:36 +0000 (-0400) Subject: Check in Ted Nelson's comment page. X-Git-Tag: 0.21~2 X-Git-Url: http://thyrsus.com/gitweb/?a=commitdiff_plain;h=c5e59d7a238ba0f37d3cea2f88f65c76580fed76;p=intercal.git Check in Ted Nelson's comment page. --- diff --git a/website/nelson.html b/website/nelson.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7059627 --- /dev/null +++ b/website/nelson.html @@ -0,0 +1,149 @@ + + + + + + + + +Ted Nelson comments.... + + + + + + + + + +

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Ted Nelson Comments...

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+From ted@xanadu.net  Wed Dec  2 11:50:17 1998
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+Date: Thu, 03 Dec 1998 01:26:55 +0900
+To: "Eric S. Raymond" 
+From: Ted Nelson 
+Subject: COME FROM statement considered asymmetrical  (CFasym.d6
+Cc: ted@sfc.keio.ac.jp, marlene@xanadu.net, erik@xanadu.net, xanni@xanadu.net,
+        eharter@din.or.jp, markm@ricochet.net,
+        drexler@imm.org (K. Eric Drexler), john@iecc.com, margy@iecc.com,
+        jordan@iecc.com, Nat Kuhn ,
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+        Charles Harris , fen@comedia.com,
+        "John Pettitt" , scriven@aol.com, colias@ascii.co.jp,
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+        jpost@earthlink.net (Jonathan Vos Post), farber@cis.upenn.edu
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+
+Hi Eric--
+
+I consider it marvelous that you have enhanced the world's
+ most obscure computer language, Intercal, by adding
+ Peter Ingerman's COME FROM statement.
+
+However, I should point out that COME FROM is not
+ a precise inverse of the GO TO statement.  True,
+ they are similar when each is one-to-one,
+ i.e. when each GOTO target/sink is pointed to by
+ only one GO TO, and each COME FROM receiver
+ is the unique recipient of its antecedent donor routine. 
+
+But the many-to-one case is asymmetrical: a number of
+ different GOTOs can have the same target, but a
+ COME FROM statement can only have a unique source.
+ And conversely: in the case of the GO TO, it is the antecedent
+ routine which can have only one target but can share it
+ with others; while in the case of the COME FROM,
+ it is the successor routines which can only share a single source.  
+
+This *could* be considered to be a deeper symmetry:
+ the possible many-to-one relation of the GO TO could be seen
+ as remapping into the possible one-to-many use of the COME FROM.
+
+But the asymmetry is stronger than that, being temporal
+ (and in some sense causative-- but this discussion must
+ skirt theology, and we know that A Programmer exists)--:
+ GO TO may only be temporally one-to-one or many-to-one,
+ while COME FROM may only be temporally one-to-one
+ or one-to-many.  If we took sexual behavior as an analogy,
+ the possible many-to-one relation of the GO TO is like being
+ gang-banged, with a relatively small variety of possible outcomes
+ (progeny), while the COME FROM is more like a bee going
+ from... oh, never mind.
+
+I hope this brings some measure of analytic rigor to a hitherto,
+ and justifiably, unknown problem area, where such rigor may
+ hitherto have been, and still may perhaps be, unwelcome.
+
+Best regards, Ted
+Gee, maybe I should submit this to Communications of the ACM...
+
+
+____________________________________________________
+Theodor Holm Nelson, Visiting Professor of Environmental Information
+ Keio University, Shonan Fujisawa Campus, Fujisawa, Japan
+ Home Fax from USA: 011-81-466-46-7368  (If in Japan, 0466-46-7368)
+http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/  (Professorial page)
+_____________________________________________________
+Permanent: Project Xanadu, 3020 Bridgeway #295, Sausalito CA 94965
+ Tel. 415/ 331-4422, fax 415/332-0136  
+http://www.xanadu.net (see also Professorial page, above)
+PERMANENT E-MAIL: ted@xanadu.net
+_____________________________________________________
+Quotation of the day, 98.12.02:
+Mike McNally, president of the Air Traffic Controllers Union, yesterday
+assured the press that air traffic controllers can take over from computers
+in case Y2K bugs hit the system.  
+     "I'm not trying to indicate that when our computers shut down that
+everything is hunky-dory.  There is a major transition period where the
+heart is beating and things are happening fast, and people are yelling and
+screaming to try to get a handle on it," he said.  (cnn.com, dateline
+98.12.01)
+
+

+ + +

+ + + + + + +

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Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>

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