Re: [ontolog-forum] IBM Watson's Final Jeopardy error "explanation"

[Simon Spero <ses@xxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 6:58 PM, John F. Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

JFS

>> Java is basically LISP + CLOS (Common Lisp Object System)
>> written in a syntax based on C.

EB

> I wonder if Jim Gosling will agree with this characterization.  I took it rather that he had the benefit of 20 years worth of approximations to object-oriented programming, from Ada and its precursors, Smalltalk (from PARC), C and C++ (from Bell Labs), LISP/CLOS (Stanford, MIT), SAIL, Euclid, Objective C, etc.

"We were after the C++ programmers. We managed to drag a lot of them about halfway to Lisp."

- Guy Steele, co-author of the Java spec (quoted in: http://www.paulgraham.com/icad.html ) 

Java's object model isn't really much like CLOS;  the primary dispatch mechanism was vtable based,  and there was no multiple inheritance[1] except for via interfaces.  Interface/protocol types are I believe original to Java, and would have made the MOP specification quite a bit more elegant.

.

S-PLUS /  R has a very LISP like feel - first class functions, a CLOS like object model, and  keyword style argument passing. This in a language designed for... statistics.   And we're back on topic :-) [2]

Simon

[1]  "And what is the use, thought Alice, of a language without polyhierarchy?"

[2]  In the context of earlier messages, Intelligence is the ability to perform one or more tasks which the utter believes that only humans are capable of. Also, Chuck Norris once conceived of a Zombie, but it roundhouse-kicked David Chalmers and stole his consciousness. 

_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/  
Config Subscr: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/  
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/ 
To join: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    (01)