RE: SMIE documentation

[Bob Rogers]

   From: "Drew Adams" <address@hidden>
   Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2010 11:46:11 -0800

   You might find usage variable.[*] Personally, I wouldn't dream of
   saying "ess-exp" (I can hardly pronounce it) - I always say "sexp".
   But then I don't say "ess-ex" either, unless referring to the county
   in Britland. ;-) . . .

Likewise, I've always said "SEX pee" (for some 30 years now).  I've
sometimes seen it spelled "s-exp", perhaps by writers objecting to the
off-color flavor, but I can't recall anyone ever pronouncing it that way
(with the possible exception of Lisp newbies).

   Googling "+sexp pronunciation lisp" is no help, BTW. Likewise the
   Wikipedia entry for S-expression. And oddly s-expression, sexp, and
   symbolic expression are absent from the Common Lisp HyperSpec's index
   and glossary (is there a searchable version?).

CLHS appears to prefer more specific terms like "expression", "list",
etc.  (Really, when you are talking about Lisp, prefixing "symbolic" is
kinda redundant, right?  ;-)

   And I cannot find anything about this in CLTL2 (is there a searchable
   version that works?).

In my paper copy, I find ~S described as "the S-expression format
directive", but no other use of the term.  (It appears in the index,
right above "sex".  ;-)

                                        -- Bob Rogers
                                           http://www.rgrjr.com/