I first heard of Smullyan from #DanielPFriedman in the Foreword to #TheSchemersGuide. He had "a chance conversation" with #RaySmullyan about a letter from math teachers in Florida. That led to a re-working of a high school computing text from #Logo to #Scheme. It's funny to see Smullyan in a Japanese Lisp foreword too.
> S式は目的を持たない、
しかしまさにそのことにより
すべての目的お見事に果たす。

> 成人(のようなLispプログラマー)は、
プログラムを書かなければならないからではなく
プログラムを書きたいからでもなく
プログラムを書けてしまうのである。

#Lisp #Scheme and #LaoTzu #RaymondSmullyan #老子

I think we need a #MinimalistProgram for everything. I've been wondering what the equivalent of #CKOgden's #BasicEnglish might be for #Racket or #Scheme. The #FossAndCrafts Scheme tutorial mentioned #LambdaTheUltimate and reminded me of #DougHoyte's #LetOverLambda book where he quote #GuySteele on primitives. I have Laozi in mind and want to think of #LambdaTheBase or #BasicLambda... With just lambda and an approach like #TheSchemersGuide learning could be in a very minimalist situation.

> If you want to write complicated, correct programs quickly, use Scheme. Scheme puts a premium on thinking and organizing one's thoughts..
> Scheme is becoming popular.. [because] it is one of the simplest languages for characterizing procedures in a clear, coherent way. This clarity is in part due to its intrinsically recursive nature and in part to its powerful abstractive facilities.
1990 #DanielPFriedman on #Scheme in #TheSchemersGuide's Foreword

@acousticmirror @fossandcrafts @cwebber
> .. one of the key aspects of programming languages is to what extent they allow us to extend our problem-solving abilities by providing new ways of.. talking about problems..

The #GeraldSussman quotes keep sending me back to #TheSchemersGuide: Preface,
".. a course for our students that emphasized analytical thinking skills over technical wizardry.. programming is about sovling real-world problems, and is only peripherally concerned with.. machines"