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C00002 00002	There's something  reassuring about asking  for opinions  from people
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There's something  reassuring about asking  for opinions  from people
who you're sure will  agree with you. It's perhaps a cheat, but it is
reassuring.  You did an excellent job of reading between  the lines. 
Yes I've had nightmares about "1-ing"; I know a fair number of people
who  couldn't (shouldn't) teach LISP. That (as  you guessed) is why I
put the knife to teachers, but it didn't seem too  subtle (not one of
my strong points)  to chop up prospective teachers in  CS at the same
time that I'm trying to get them to look at LISP. I think I'm already
open  to  charges  of at  least  excessive  zeal  if  not  down-right
snobbery.   But  my hope is  that the  students ARE smarter  than the
typical  instructor, and  that  given  access  to  the  language  can
understand what's  happening.  Indeed  this is  one of the  reasons I
want  LISP introduced  as soon  as possible  to the  student.   I see
absolutely no  reason that it  can't be  done it  high school if  not
sooner.   My experience  with teaching LISP  has been that  the fewer
preconceptions, the better.   At  UCLA I  taught a  mix about  80-20%
undergraduate-graduate  and   the  undergraduates  did   consistently
better.   Perhaps  it says more  about the  quality of the  UCLA grad
student,  than  about   the  pedagogical  wonders   of  LISP.     The
undergraduates didn't  know that  "you can't do  that in  FORTRAN" or
"gezuss,  that's  inefficient" they  really  could get  excited about
LISP. 

Now what is perhpas interesting is that we were  doing this without a
machine. Now  this was not  by choice; UCLA  had a fucking  360 batch
system--"punch the  cards,  kiddies";  I certainly  wasn't  going  to
inflict THAT on  them (reality: this  old fart wasn't about  to learn
JCL or  to punch a goddamned  card!!!).  Yes LISP has  got to have an
interactive (scopes NOT ttys) facility to be taught completely, and I
believe that if such is not available then it is better to ignore the
substitute, and spend the class-time on things other than programming
tricks. I'm dead-set against teaching any  programming language (even
LISP)as a CS course.  perhaps i should say "particularly LISP", since
the typical LISP-course  --"See a  left paren, see  the right  paren,
kiddies now it's just  like Fortran, except ..."--, the  typical LISP
course is a fraud, and does more harm than good. 

Of course  you knew all this already, and of  course you knew that is
is why I wrote Stupor LISP, and  of course you knew that this is  one
reason I wrote the letter: 

QUESTION from benumbed reader who has  suddenly seen the error in his
ways (grovelling is optional): "But sir there is no text for LISP";

ANSWER:(delivered while ascending into heaven) "I have here this fine
high-quality LISP-text,  only a  few left, but  of superior  quality.
Tell you what I'm gonna do..."

By the way, the copy  B. Vance sent is the version being published by
San Jose; the only differences are that they're double-siding it  and
binding it with a rather  obscene cover which I made for it.   It's a
collage which boggles the mind...  I originally wanted a picture of a
dog pissing on a fire-hydrant---dog-LISP:fire-hydrant:Fortran---  but
had to settle  for a collage (better that than  a law-suit, I guess);
I'll send  a copy to you, so your version will be complete.  the next
cover will be the promo-  picture from King Kong on the  Empire State
building.   The planes,  buzzing Kong  will be marked  PL/1, FORTRAN,
COBOL,..   Kong will  have a  LISP  sweatshirt and  Fay Ray  will  be
Computer Science (gezzus, what a sicko mind!!!)

There  are  many  errors  in  that  version  and  many  sections  are
incomplete  but I just couldn't  stall Luckham any longer  and had to
stop to do some  APG-shit. I didn't know for  sure that you were  the
reviewer; so what  I can do is  get to work on the  errors sheets and
let you know what blunders, misconceptions, lies ...I've found.