Lambda the Ultimate

Namely, "langugae" near the end. Fixing this typo has proved elusive...

*duck*

OTOH, it's probably left there intentionally to demonstrate the perils of copy-paste programming ;-)

Does anyone else find it very tempting to accidentally use the "Post new comment" area to reply instead of clicking reply under the message, since that feels like such a natural place to reply?

I've done this like 20% of the time (submitted a top-level comment instead of a reply).

If others have the same problem, I wonder if the interface can be customized somehow to avoid/lessen the chances of this?

How does one writes ß? What about λ or π or ∩ or ⊥ or ∪? Do you know all HTML entities by heart? What about mathematical symbols that do not have names, but just codes?

Assuming many browsers are Unicode-capable, should not we start using Unicode wider?

Are there any client-side Unicode helpers out there? Some dropdown that allows one to pick a symbol from a chart? A subset of couple of charts would be enough (like this one: http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2200.pdf), I don't think natural alphabets (and other non-alphabetical "natural" writing systems) should be covered.

If such utility is not readily available, and there are enough supporters of the idea, I will volunteer to do what I can.

We have a category for Theory/Lambda Calculus, but none for Theory/Pi and related calculi. Not sure, what the specific name should be, though.

Perhaps this can be made part of a FAQ.

There are many abbreviations used on LTU which are neither obvious, nor part of the computer science lexicon. To aid new readers, I propose a glossary of such.

To start off the list:

CTM: Concepts, Techniques and Models of Computer Programming by PVR
PVR: Peter van Roy
LTU: Lambda the Ultimate (in case there was any doubt)
SICP: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Abelson and Sussman

Lots more, I'm sure... please add to the list.

...at Language Design Docs.

Just skimming through the Design Docs page and noticed there are links to Python PEPs. Tcl's equivalent are TIPs and are available at http://tip.tcl.tk/ in case you want to add the link. Hope this is the correct way to submit a new link.

(Also, as someone noted a while ago "Quick Qoutes" (sic) is still misspelt in the menu.)

It'd be nice if there were a convenient way to link directly to a comment, i.e. have the comment titles be links to themselves or perhaps a small icon beside them. The anchors are there as the following link demonstrates, but the only way to get at them is by searching for the comment or constructing the link yourself (or at least those were the only ways I could find after a bit of trying).

http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/view/100#comment-873

[Edit: You can also get the links in collapsed views, but still...]

Years ago, I once felt that there are some commonness between Chinese and Lisp. They both lack syntax, but expressing the same idea will need less words/time/space than other languages. What's more, they are both old languages but still used today.

Today, I just read an article (in Chinese) saying that "Thinking in Chinese is faster than that in English". The main argument is that Chinese has more voices than English. Chinese has 21 consonants, 35 vowels and 4 scales/tunes (音调, 四声 in Chinese but no counterpoint in English), so there can be totally 2900 voices, although only 1200 in use. English only has 20 consonants and 20 vowels, so there are only 400 voices at most (not to mention some unused voices). The time needed to think/pronounce one voice is relatively constant, which means that thinking in Chinese other than in English is somewhat like using a 64bit CPU other than a 32bit one. The author also mentions the example of 'pork,mutton,beef, and donkey meat' and the corresponding words in Chinese.

Since I have read several posters here about natual language, I post it here for more discussion.

On the menu bar along the top of the screen available in the skins like marvin_2k: Quick Quotes is incorrectly spelled "Quick Qoutes".