Re: McCarthy Evaluation ( was Re: [xml] A long URL causes SEGV)

[Igor Zlatkovic <igor zlatkovic com>]

Reid Spencer wrote:

> Igor,
>
> The question's already been answered so I'll provide a little history.
> The construct you're referring to (the elimination of sub expression
> computation with && and ||) is known as McCarthy Evaluation. John
> McCarthy is the inventor of Lisp and current professor emeritus of
> computer science at Stanford. He's a very accomplished AI researcher and
> his elimination of sub-expression computation was borne from the need to
> make LISP efficient. It turns out that its also a staple of computer
> science being adopted by languages such as C, C++, Java, Algol, Pascal,
> .... etc. You can read to your heart's content on Mr. McCarthy's
> website: http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/

Thanks, Reid! That's exactly the direction I hoped for.

I heard about that page while I was studying "AI - A Modern Approach" by 
Russell/Norvig. I shall go there for a while, since my memory refresh 
cycle is long due.

I'll take the freedom to suggest others to read the docs of what they 
are using, rather than end like me, mainaining compliance to 
non-existent features for years. :-) :-)

Ciao,
Igor