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Re:The Next 700 Programming Languages (1965) [pdf] by nerdponx on Monday January 08, 2018 @08:54AM (#16096693)
I wonder what the author would think of today's Lisps, or languages like Haskell and Prolog that embrace non-sequential execution, allow you to freely define infix operators, and have a where syntax.
Re:The Next 700 Programming Languages (1965) [pdf] by rwhaling on Monday January 08, 2018 @05:59PM (#16101687)
My thought is that, in some ways, Landin would be disappointed that Haskell/Prolog/Scala/OCaml etc., are all implementing whole languages from scratch -- Landin's argument, as I read it, is that devising a new ISWIM variant should be about as easy as writing your own Lisp.

That said, it does feel like the ML and Haskell communities really have taken up that spirit, with their emphases on multiple implementations and relatively ease of extension.

Re:The Next 700 Programming Languages (1965) [pdf] by kazinator on Tuesday January 09, 2018 @02:01AM (#16104177)
You could freely define infix operators and a where syntax in 1965 Lisps.
Re:The Next 700 Programming Languages (1965) [pdf] by theoh on Monday January 08, 2018 @06:50PM (#16102110)
Haskell is a direct descendent of ISWIM via David Turner's SASL. Landin, however, lost interest in software in the 70s. There's a lot of biographical info, including videos of him reminiscing, to be found online.
Re:The Next 700 Programming Languages (1965) [pdf] by rurban on Monday January 08, 2018 @09:45AM (#16097009)
Lisp has the LOOP macro for this kind of nonsense.
Re:The Next 700 Programming Languages (1965) [pdf] by nerdponx on Monday January 08, 2018 @10:14AM (#16097226)
I don't think ISWIM (as I understand it) needs to be "conversational" like LOOP. List comprehensions, as a direct translation of set-builder notation, are probably good enough.

LOOP has nothing to do with non-sequential execution, or anonymous scoped blocks (read: 'where' clauses).

Re:The Next 700 Programming Languages (1965) [pdf] by greggirwin on Monday January 08, 2018 @05:00PM (#16101086)
Or languages whose strength is in building other languages.
Re:The Next 700 Programming Languages (1965) [pdf] by toolslive on Monday January 08, 2018 @12:33PM (#16098309)
Re:The Next 700 Programming Languages (1965) [pdf] by nerdponx on Monday January 08, 2018 @02:39PM (#16099558)
Not only is that immaterial, but he certainly lived to see all of those languages I mentioned.
Re:The Next 700 Programming Languages (1965) [pdf] by 13of40 on Monday January 08, 2018 @07:17PM (#16102283)
It seems that later in life he quit focusing on computer science, and may have been out of touch with it as early as the start of the 70's. Here's his obituary: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/sep/22/peter-lan...

"Always bisexual, he threw himself into the politics of the Gay Liberation Front in the early 1970s. He separated amicably from his wife in 1973, and was closely in touch with her and his children till his death. For the rest of his life he pursued gay politics, and his house in Rona Road, Camden, became a gay commune. Always more of a facilitator than an activist, he saw many plots hatched at his dinner parties. Aids: the Musical! was conceived there, as was the reinvigoration of Gay Pride marches in the mid-80s, just in time for the battle over Clause 28. Towards the end of his life, Peter became convinced that computing had been a bad idea, giving support to profit-taking corporate interests and a surveillance state, and that he had wasted his energies in promoting it. But whether he liked it or not, his ideas underpin developments to this day."