On Tue, 22 May 2007, Anton van Straaten <anton at appsolutions.com> wrote:
> Another forwarded message from J. A. "Biep" Durieux:
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: J. A. "Biep" Durieux <rrrs at biep.org>
>> Sent: 21 May 2007
>> To: 'r6rs-discuss at lists.r6rs.org'
>> Subject: WdW and the nature of Scheme (Was: A guideline for designing Scheme)
>
> [Tired and isolated.. :-)]
>
> It is good to see my WdW message stirring up some discussion, but
> unfortunately the reactions seem to address the last line only - and
> then ignore the word "final" there.
>
> The situation as I see it is a bit like the straddle in an Academic
> hospital. This implies a quadrupartition, or rather a double
> bipartition:
> (1) Scheme, the scientific apothecary, consisting of two parts.
> (1a) The Beds, the medicinal garden where carefully-chosen medicinal
> plants are grown.
> (1b) The Pharmacopoeia, describing tonics and cordials with a proven
> wholesome effect, and how to produce them from the herbs from the Beds.
> Per ailment there is at most one recipe, and its healing effect is
> guaranteed. For many ailments a recipe is still lacking, though.
> The apothecary is run strictly according to WdW modality principles.
>
> (2) The Drugstore, likewise consisting of two parts.
> (2a) The Mudlands, an eerie and forbidding land where trees grow of
> repulsive shape, whose unwholesome fruits possess dark powers.
> (2b) The Grymoire, describing potions and concoctions that in general
> tend to have a positive overall effect. Their ingredients come where
> possible from the Beds, but the Drugstore owners don't hesitate to
> harvest in the Mudlands when the Beds don't provide what they need. The
> Grymoire contains recipes for many diseases that the Pharmacopoeia
> doesn't treat, at times even several competing ones for the same
> illness.
>
> Once in a while one or the other of two things may happen to The Beds.
> [a] Scheme accepts some plant X from the Mudlands, either in its wild
> form, or in the form of a cultivar. In that latter case, a recipe is
> added to the Grymoire that describes how to obtain the original effect
> in terms of the cultivar, and X is eradicated from the Mudlands.
> [b] A new, more fundamental base of plants is found. In that case
> recipes in terms of the new plants corresponding to any removed ones are
> added to the Grymoire.
> Comparable things may happen to the Pharmacopoeia.
>
> Now the hospital as a whole is quite useful, but there are more useful
> hospitals. The apothecary is unique, however, and merging it with the
> larger hospital would amount to a real loss. So by all means let the
> hospital grow, but never by blurring the line between the apothecary and
> the drugstore. R6RS could recognise the four quadrants. Let Scheme
> remain the language that.. etc.
>
> J. A. "Biep" Durieux - rrrs at biep.org (Please reply here rather than to
> the address I had this sent from.
Yes. In the instant case of Scheme, the Dream^Wprogramming
system, let 1a include a formally strictly correct, as we
understand such things in the Official Academies, semantics.
The semantics must include a formalization of Time and Space. As
we know, sometimes, St. Erlang's Hospital does wonderful things
in cases for which we have no prepared remedy.
oo--JS.
Received on Wed May 23 2007 - 20:41:49 UTC