General talk about software patterns

["Mike Beedle" <beedlem AT e-architects.com>]

Ralph Johnson 
[mailto:johnson AT cs.uiuc.edu]
 writes:
> I have never heard of the word "homoiconic" before.
> I know the idea pretty well, so I checked on google
> to see whether it was a new term.  It turns out that
> it was used in Alan Kay's PhD thesis in 1969!  So,
> I wonder why I haven't seen it before?  Perhaps the
> word just never caught on.

Ralph:

Thanks.  Interesting fact.  I didn't realize he talked 
about it even then but it makes sense, given the goals of 
FLEX and the Reactive Engine.

I found the following quote in his dissertation, btw:

"Although BASIC has a structure somewhat like FORTRAN, 
it is not really interactive, since the user transacts 
business in a simple "operating-system-like" manner, and 
the response is very much like a dedicated batch system.
Most other higher level, so called "interactive" systems 
were like TINT (a variant of ALGOL-60) in which the 
reactions with the system are very much like BASIC: 
The user is stuck out in a corner, viewing his world through 
a very narrow porthole.

A notable group of exceptions to all the previous systems 
are Interactive LISP [.] and TRAC. Both are functionally 
oriented (one list, the other string), both talk to the 
user with one language, and both are "homoiconic" in that 
their internal and external representations are essentially 
the same."

Btw, Raphael Finkel talks about holoiconic languages 
and features extensively in his book:

Advanced Programming Language Design (list 4 8 9) 
http://www.awprofessional.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=0805311912&redi
r=1
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805311912/104-8510857-2653522



Ralph Johnson 
[mailto:johnson AT cs.uiuc.edu]
 writes:
> Needless to say, I have never seen a pattern language
> for it.

Well, having said that, I would be interested in both
the patterns that make a language holoiconic and the
patterns it participates on, facilitates or generates.

- Mike

"Lisp isn't a language, it's a building material."
        Alan Kay

"the greatest single programming language ever designed"
        Alan Kay, on Lisp

... although this probably should read:

"the greatest single programming language that ever emerged"