Re: Emacs history, and "Is Emacs difficult to learn?"

[Rustom Mody]

On Tuesday, July 30, 2013 5:30:35 PM UTC+5:30, Emanuel Berg wrote:
> Barry Margolin writes:
> 
> > When spreadsheet software came out, no one told them they were
> > "programming" when they put "SUM(A)" in a field and it totalled
> > all the values in column A, so they didn't know they couldn't do
> > it because they weren't programmers.
> 
> 
> But that's not programming, either. That's bookkeeping. In the
> world of science and technology, perhaps it is set theory,
> relational algebra, or simply stats. It is not programming.

Heres Simon Peyton Jones on why spreadsheets are just FP in disguise
http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~black/S3S/PeytonJones.ppt

In the same way, R is stats+programming
sql is relational-algebra+programming
[And oldtimers will remember SetL]