General talk about software patterns

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

Pascal Costanza wrote:
> On 14 Aug 2004, at 10:07, Mike Beedle wrote:
> 
> > http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?HomoiconicLanguages
> >
> > Homoiconicity is perhaps the deepest and most fundamental
> > property of a computer language -- one that can be 
> > attributed to bring forth the most adaptability and 
> > or life resemblance.
> 
> Hm, interesting. But where does this term come from? Is it
> well-defined? (Maybe not, and maybe it's not important, but 
> I am just asking...)

Pascal:

Unfortunately, I don't where the term originated but your 
question and a few other ones are good questions to ask:

        Where did the term originated?  
        Who defined it?
        When was it done?  
        In what context?
        Was it used somewhere else before it was used
        in the context of computer languages?
        When/Who/How was it applied to computer languages?
        etc.

However, it has been in the literature for longer than
I expected.  As Ralph pointed out -- Kay was using the term 
in 1968, which leads me to believe it may have been in use
in computer languages circles for at least a few years earlier.

The term does make sense as far as describing a fundamental 
language feature:

        homoiconic ~ same form or representation (of data and programs)
        (my translation from etymologies)

Sadly, although the concept has been around for a while,
the majority of languages do not have this feature,

- Mike

"It is time to unmask the computing community as the
Secret Society for the Creation and Preservation of
Artificial Complexity (formal sense)."

        Edgser W. Dijkstra